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ACRISIUS, KING OF ARGOS, 



AND OTHER POEMS 



BY 

HORACE EATON 




CI.ARF.MONT, N. H. 

GEO. I. PUTNAM CO. 

1S95. 









Entemi according to act of Congress, in the year 1895, b\ 
HORACE EATON WALKER, 
in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, I) < 



CONTENTS. 



Acrisids, King of Argos 

A Book of Sonnets 
I love you 
Paul Hayne 
While others wander 
Sing the songs we love 
They took her from me 
The melody of Burns 
I revel in the songs 
John Keats 
A thankless song 
To the moon 
Reading sonnets 
Earth is never old 
The musical sonnets 
What is beauty 
To love 
What is love 

Sonnets on Spring 

Miscellaneous Poems 

Al Sirat 

The battle 

I hear the trumpets 

A song 

The wild' waves 

My ship is sailing 

Mary's death 

The scent of roses 

The buttercup 

The daisy 

Dead leaves 

The fir tree 

The hazel 



Acrisius, King of Argos. 

DRAMATIS PERSONS. 

Acrisius, King of Argolis. 

Dana;, daughter of King Acrisius. 

Apollo, god of archery, prophesy and music. 

Zeus, king of gods, and husband of Dame. 

Delia, wife of Acrisius. 

POLYDECTES, King of Seriphus. 

DiCTYS, brother of Polydectes. 

Perseus, only child of Dance. 

ANDROMEDA, celebrated for her beauty. 

Hippodamia, daughter of King of Pisa. 

BETTA, Dame's nurse. 

FelldA-FF, a Grecian brazier. 

Hardspur, a villain. 

BRASKER, Hardspur' s friend in crime. 

Attendants, heralds, soldiers, officers, etc 



ACT I. 

SCENE I. 
In the Palace of King Acrisius. Eoening. Enter the King oj Argon and 
his wife. 

King. To be the King of Argos is an honor ; 
But, how much more the honor unto her. 
As wife, who giveth unto him a son 
To wear his father's crown, and be a king 
From birth ! 

Queen. Aye ! lord and master, 'tis e en so ; 

-Vinl C^ueen of Argos yet will sit beneath 
The pale white moon, and study how she may 
(Jive to her proud old kins a son, to be 
A Nestor of the world! 

King. * Tis said, my queen! 

And never old Saronic gulf of Argos 
Saw proudlier woman than my queenly Delia, 
In new ambition to become a mother. 
Argolic <rulf in watery song shall sing thee, 
The fertile plain of Argolis shall join it, 
The grand, the staid Malevo group of mountains. 
The Artemision range, in courtly ditty, 
Arcadian boundaries, circling in their wonder. 
And kingdom in an everlasting homage. 

Queen. Then will 1 make essay to do thy hest; 
But yet has fairest Danse blessed thy throne. 
And with a queenly beauty rare indeed, 
Rivalling the stars and rainbow and white moon, 
Such is the splendor of her beauty. 

King. , r ? '• 

And grandeur's in the word. Indeed, 1 iom 



ACBISIUS, KING OF ARGOS 

My queenliest wife in all her wisdom's verdict. 
For, Delia, Dame 's truly Greek of Greeks, 
And 's peer ot any goddess. 

Queen. Yet wilt ask 

A rival from the womb that gave her birth ! 

King. All men have whims, and e'en no less a king; 
For though the stars do fall, I yet would have 
A noble son, yea ! grand as any. You 
Alone of women fair can bear him yet; 
And should he match by half our Dame rare, 
Then shall the world possess a god indeed. 
For, Iook vou, man may read of earthly Nestors, 
The brave Achilles and the great Leanders, 
Heroes and men in every human sense. 
Would not the Queen of Argosbow to heaven 
Had she gin birth to such a piece of manhood? 

Queen. Helen of Troy was such a masterpiece. 
Mv Danae 's peer of any heroine! 

King. Well said, my wondrous wife. But mine's ambition 
Only the great kings can wot of ; for kings 
Are* more than queens. 

Queen. Then I, once Delia fair, 

The queen and wife of Argos's greatest mouarch, 
Wilt studv well new motherhood, and be 
The willing harbinger within the year 
Of King of Argos's kingly son ! 

King. 'Tie now 

Thou art mv wife indeed, and do 1 bless thee 
With kingly kisses, and a man's regard 
Who feels ins wife will conquer on a field 
Where doughty captains are outgeneraled. 
For look ye back in history; men have risen 
On field of battle, mighty soldiers. Queens 
Have risen also in ye olden empires. 
But mau 's a mightier, for a woman 's less 
in fair comparison, at best, with man. 

Queen. It may be so; but Dame is my idol. 

King. And well. But, sit beside me while I paint 
The nuptials of our wedding morn, when first 
I led thee captive maid through Cupid's wiles 
To Hymen's marriage altar. Thou didst shine 
With supernatural lustre ; and our union 
Bespoke a unison of two young hearts 
That throbbed in one barmonious tune. And, therefore, 
No wonder grew that Dame was so fair, 
So meet, and all endowed with native beauty, 
E'en rivalling renowned Andromeda. 

Queen. ' Tuas only love that swayed us then, Acrisius. 
The potencies of state and governmental 
Daw had but smallest part. King Eros reigned. 

King. And so today. But kings grow old, and Daua3 
is only offspring of our stately house; 
And this should never hap. A courtly son, 
With splendid 'coutrements of face and form; 
And manly prestige, with a lineal line 



6 ACBISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 

of blood that has coursed thn>" kings 1 veins for years 

Now unremembered, sith so long ago 

Their first beginning, shouldst <-'<'ii soon be added 

To King Acrisius's bouse. 0, dost agree, 

My queen and long enduring wife? Speak out. 

Queen. Already has she spoken. Her will \s thiae. 
But, King Aerisius, my full years of harvest 
Arc past and 'yond recall, unless the gods 
Are part propitiated in our favor. 

King. Confusion! So they are. 1*11 hie me hence 
Tomorrow, and consult the oracle 
Of god Apollo. 

Queen. Do so soon. Enlist 

His favor; and may all consenting gods 
Propitious bow to bis decree. 

King. Then, wife, 

I bid thee now a kingly faretheewell; 
1 'd hence t" count the moments 'neath the stars 
As one by one they build the happy hour 
That see'st me father of a son. Good by, 
Ami faretheewell, my own, my loveliest queen; 
And may the gods of earth and starry heaven 
Still bless thy fleeting hours with kingly plenty. 

Queen. By all the classic waves of luachus, 
The babbling waters of old Kephalari, 
Thy Delia *li do her wifely duties; and 
Heaven sparing and extending her divinity. 

Her age shall bless the thr ! of King Aerisius 

With such a son that men sh til say : The Queen 

Of Argos, in her fall of life, has given 

Her king such son the world hath not a peer. 

King. Bravo! Adelia. This is eloquence; 
And do I swear by old Arcadian mountains, 
Proud Phlius and Cleonae and Corinthia, 
And hoary Peloponnesus, thou art 
My wife, a thing not often said by kings; 
And all the kingdoms of old Argolis, 
Mycenae and Hermione and Tiry.ns, 
Shalt bear our double glory, narest queen, 
And ministering angel to my earthly greatness. 

Queen. May Jove's great stars smile on our high ambition. 

King. And all good deities of earth and sky. [Ex. Queen. 

A star of night she saileth from my ken, 
A woman that's a boon to king- or men. 
Now will I forth in twilight shades and talk 
Of her and self and joy that's soon to be. 
The birds are hushed. All nature's in repose, 
And, save the teasing brooks aneath the moon 
That rides on yonder bill, no sound is heard. 
The snakes are noiseless in the grass. How calm, 
How placid is the hour of night ! Alone 
With God 1 stand amid the freighted twilight, 
The King of Argos, greatest of bis line. 
I came upon the throne direct in blood, 
And now am old in honored reign. But, Argos, 



ACBISIUS, KING OF ARGOS 

Old Argolis, to make me ripe, with earth 

Renown, and more than kingly glory, I 

Shalt raise a son as noble as the stars, 

As high, to rill tfie plaee I 've tilled so well. 

Lying alone, as't were, old Argos sleeps 

Atween the bays of Nauplia and JEgina, 

The greatest kingdom of old Greece, the greatest 

King reigning as Aerisius. Forsooth, 

To be the king of this peninsula, 

Is noble, but to be the father of 

A son is nobler-! So, O Plain of Argos! 

And Peloponnesus e'en guarding now, 

As years, the riven coast and Lemean Marsh, 

And Nome of old Morea, wilt bless me, king, 

With son of woman! Then will la ruler 

Of Argolis. go forth and tame the Hydra, 

And kill the Nemean lion; and O sea! 

Thou everlasting memory -of the past, 

Yet hear my compact. And, fair Juno, list, 

Cleonae, Philus, Sicyon and old Troezen, 

And all the Doric states, for I am young 

Again when thoughts like these do cross my brain, 

That I 'm to be the father of a son ! [Ex. King. 

SCENE II. 

Queen in Dump's mom. 

Dance. Good mother, pray wilt tell me why art come? 

Queen. A plot is working in the good king's brain. 

Dance. Ah! good my mother, and the plot 's of evil? 

Queen. Nay, daughter Danse, in your room 1 say: 
The goodly king 's ambitious in his years. 

Dana-. But 't is not like him since I grew a child. 

Queen. And never since I mind me of the hour 
That made him king, and king of Argolis. 
Then his ambition sought the skies; and not 
Until the glittering crown descended on 
His head, did proud Acrisius look amen! 
Hut now, my Danae, hast a new ambition 
Befuddled his old brain. 

Dance. My mother dear, 

And gray in earthly goodness, let thy Danae, 
Though yet a child, rind solace for thy breast; 
For care and worry make \w\\ shadows on 
Thy face. Come, sit beside me, for I mind 
The days when you were beauty's second self, 
Tall and commanding, with a grandeur I 
Did rank among the queens of Greece. Dost smile? 
But never woman came to kingly home, 
And seeptered throne, more born to them than thee; 
And had my worthy father lost his mind, 
And babbled in his talk, you 'd ta'en the reins 
Of empire, and so patterned after him 
In all his former glory, other kingdoms, 
Near, far, had heard your queenly sovereignty, 
And men had said: Behold a woman who 



8 ACBISIUS, KING OF AEG OS 

Is peer of any man, and reigns with splendor 
In husband's* stead o'er all the towns of Argos ! 

Queen. From any other child than thee such news 
Had fallen dead. But thou, sweet child, art true 
As gold to rue : and mayst thou ever be 
As priceless with the lustre of true girlhood. 

Dance. Flattery is not a part of Dauae's being. 

Queen. No, no ; and 't were a pit}' one so fair, 
And full of nature's goodliest store, of love, 
And beauty, comeliness and stateliness, 
With majesty of personality, 
That make her tit to be the Queen of Argos, 
Should be deposed by so ungracious sire. 

Dance. A cpueen ! 

Queen. Indeed, a queen ! 

Dame. But father lives. 

The king still lives. 

Queen. But kings are not immortal. 

Like mortals they must die. Their crowns are uot 
A guarantee ot life. Dread death is more 
Than kings and kingdoms. He, Acrisius, 
Is in his dotage. 

Dana'. Mother, why these riddles? 

Art thou the Sphinx? 

Queen. No, Danre, life to me 

Was never more of life than now ; for he, 
The king, thy sire, would throw thee on the world. 
Dance. What ! turn me forth, the offspring of his house. 
And only blood-line to the throne at his 
Demise? 

Queen. But hear me. I am wildered too, 
As he is wildered. Forty years have been 
Our wedded harvest, and till now he was 
Content. 

Dana'. Has father as the King of Argos 
Lost sway? 

Queen' Nay, nay, his reign is bright as steel. 

Daiue. And he is well? 

Queen. He drinks his wine with gusto, 

Ami leads the butler at a steak. 

Dance. What then? 

Affairs unhinged? His government awry? 

Queen. All things move on as smooth as brooks of oil. 
Courtier and noble, servant, knight and lord, 
Move in and out like trained automatons, 
So perfect is the order of his reign. 

Dance. And he is yet unhappy? 

(jneen. Yea. One hour 

Agu, the hundred thousand souls in Argos 
Were never happier. 

Dance. H^ i> wroth with thee? 

Queen I prithee no. A very honeymoon 
He "d make me. But, thy ear, my Dame child, 
The King of Argos once again would be 
A father. 



ACRISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 

Danm. Fi°! a father? Passing folly. 
Tomorrow "II find him staid, sedate and grand, 
A king of k'niifs. with wisdom "yond his age, 
The Hge in which he lives, with cautious eye 
To note the rise and fall of waves of state. 
And guide with equal hand the helm of Argos. 

Queen. We'l said, my own queen child; but till he know 
If time do grant his folly-wish, he sleeps 
Not on white beds of down, but on a rack 
With angry glittering spikes to pierce his flesh. 

Dame. And argument has no avail? A word 
Of wisdom naught of power? E'en blindly he 
Will do his will, and all the gods, his thoughts, 
Y'et fail to pacify? I' m young in years, 
And have presumption in my present act; 
But, mother mine, I do advise thee, not 
To act in coldness, change a shade, a shred. 
From present self. If any change, do act 
As sunshine to his thought, and with him pray 
P«»r promised minute that shall see me sister 
Unto a baby brother. 

Queen. Danse mine. 

Thou 'it wise bevond thy years, and ere I sleep, 
I 'il so adjust my thoughts that my old face 
Will not betray my bitter pain; for hear: 
It 's not for self, for \rgos or its people, 
But thee, thee, thee! 

Dance. Then, mother, shed no tears, 

For Dame has no thought save thee. Tomorrow, 
Tonight, I 'd lay my head alow for thee; 
Tonight, I 'd stand up 'gainst the god of death 
For thee. Tonight, I 'd rise up face to face 
And say : Thou art my father; but, king, she 's 
My mother! Back! or thou shalt kill me first! 
But. good my mother, leave me now for dreams 
Of future happiness. 

Queen. E'en so I will, 

And in those dreams still dream my dreams of thee. 

Dame. And sleep as newborn babe on mother's breast, 
Thoughtless in idle dreams, if such they have. 

Queen. My blessing on the* 1 , and my prayer is this : 
That Danas maid may never have a brother. [Ex. Queen. 

Danoe. And n Q ver proudlier woman looked to God 
For suave commiseration of her woe. 
I 'II hie myself to god Apollo. He 
Shalt hear mv eloquence in stout behalf 
Of that pure mother who did suckle me. 
Father, the kiiiij', is in lamented state. 
So long his reign, and unadulterated 
Willi dross or weakness, and no near approach, 
I can but little reck his present changes. 
I have no mind to understand. So, dreams, 
And prayers, and all good elfs, preside tonight, 
That I on morrow morn may sway the god 
Of wisdom, 'gainst the king, my father. It 



10 ACBI8IUS, KING OF ABGOS 

In part consoles me that I have no motive 

Other than truest love for her who bore me. [Ex. Danee. 

SCENE in. 

At tlic shrine of Apollo on Mount Delphi. 

Apollo. These times be full of worldly wisdom, and 
From Delos where 1 grew a babe, a lad. 
The son of Jupiter and dark Latona, 
I rose as fair Diana's brother to 
Old Delphi, celebrated for its fame. 
And world-renowned oracle, until 
I 'm now the sougbt-out Sun-god of the earth. 
My word is law. No more I need to slay 
The Python monsters. Fame is mine by laws 
Inviolate as sun and moon. Once gained. 
My petty word and whispered syllable,. 
Find ready credence. Did I say: O Man ! 
Thy span is brief. But two short decades thou 
Wilt be o'erswept by mightier gods than I, 
And all this earth of rock, and sea, and land. 
The mammoth, mastodon and polar bear. 
And every breathing thing, with man the highest, 
Wilt be o'erwhelmed and crumbled info naught, 
With never a vestige left behind to tell 
The perished story. Vet I reign at Delphi, 
And suns roll into space; the stars do conic 
And white o'ersprinkle all the lurid sky. 
The rains do fall, and clouds in grand procession 
Like some majestic host, march through the sky. 
And disappear in wonder and great glory. 
The seasons come and go in ordered train, 
And now is Spring with beauty borrowed from 
The firmament to deck this lesser world, 
And paint a thousand fulgencies for day, 
The rainbow's rival in its beautiful 
And rarest intermixture of new colors. 
Then cometh summer drowsed in odorous sweetness. 
Zephyr and gale o'erladen with a balm 
From heaven's Paradise, till human minds 
Do wonder if the skies of God do hold 
A lovelier. Then old Autumn, ripe in fruit 
And wise maturity, still grovveth sere 
In fourfold plenteousness till old barns 
And goodly garners, creak and strain and labor 
With golden harvests. Then the winds come on 
From frozen corners, hills and unsunned nooks, 
And in the frozen morn a winding-sheet 
Of snow now glitters in the frosty air, 
And nature sleeps. To us the world seems dead, 
But no! The spring returns, the summer comes, 
And autumn; and for thousand years 't will be, 
Hath been. Who comes? 'Tis beauty's self, and she 
Has summer on her face, but stormy clouds 
O'ershadow ! 
Enter Dance. 



ACRISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 11 

Dance. O great Sun-god of old Delphi, 
Wilt aught deny nie audience here? I 've climbed 
Tins hoary mount with ribbed rock and stone, 
And grandeur piercing heaven, and a glory 
Renowned o'er all the world, to ask of thee 
Some intercession in behalf of Delia, 
My pure queen mother, and a woman rare. 

Apollo. Speak, fairest imitation of the angels, 
Apollo's ear is ope to beauty's haps. 

Dance. Some twenty years agone I came a babe. 
As millions long before me, onlj - I 
Am Dame, King Acrisius's only daughter. 

Apollo. Nay ! 't is not heaven to be a king's own daughter. 
And yet, proceed. And all the glitter here 
Of gold and silver, amethyst and diamonds, 
And twisted beauties from the Orient, 
And velvets, plush, and all the decoration 
Of human skill and earth despoiled of, daunt 
Thee not. 

Dance. Apollo, hear me as thy child, 
As blood of blood, as richest ichor flowed 
Within my veins. For I would near thy heart, 
And make my case thy own. 

Apollo. Proceed. Thy voice 

Hath maiden melody ! 

Dance. Till yesternight. 

The king, my father, now of Argolis, 
Happy did rest that I, his only child, 
Still lived to take the Argos throne at his 
Demise, a:id reign with new acquired wisdom. 

Apollo. Thou 'it born a queen. Thy lineaments do show it, 
And comelv prestige of thy native presence. 

Daniv. But ere the far way stars came out and birds 
And birds did hush their tantalizing melodies, 
He sweMcc. with kingly wisdom to become 
Once more a father! 

Apollo. 'T is his second childhood. 

He'll be within his grave within the year, 
If signs do keep their wonted course. But, Dana?, 
Still sleep as sleep the innocent of earth. 

Dance. And he would have r,he babe a boy, O Phoebus! 

Apollo. But, child, thy mother 's long since past such things. 
Her duties all are now performed, save living 
And honoring her and hers with such a presence 
As Grecian woman ne'er has shown since Greece 
First led the world with beauty and high honor. 

Dana\ But, God of Delphi, my strange sire would come 
To thee for such a kind of intervention 
Of all thy powers that ibis great woman once 
Again shalt give birth to a child, a boy ! 

Apollo. Go rest in peace. I'll meet thy father's wills 
With such a kind of wisdom as may teach 
Him kinglier sense. Go, go thou forth and wait; 
For he who waits in patience wins at last. 

Dance. I thank thee in behalf of her who bore me, 



12 Arid sirs. KING OF ARUOS 

And her who hears the name of Dan 86. And 
I leave thee in thy greatest glory, king 

Of Ilea ven and earth; and as to stanv god, 

.Myself I bow from thee, O great Apollo! [Ex. Dance. 

Apollo. They whisper of the beaut v of the skies. 
The heavens, and angels that do wing their way 
Through fragrant space, their heads enemwned by stars 
That shine in heaven. But Dana? is a being 
To tease their selfishness, if angels have 
Such earthy trait. For she is beauty's self, 
So \,ill I call ray art, and teaeh Acrisius 
That nature's laws are still inviolate. 
Forsooth, a son ! Such thoughts are addle. 1 
Will wait the coining of this would-be father. 

Enter the King of Argolis. 

King. 1 bow till rainbow's yellow arch is emblem 
Of old Acrisius's trite obsequiency, 
For such his veneration of a god. 

Apollo. And I will give tine bow for bow : sith kings 
Do seldom meet, such is their native rivalry. 

King. I "in but a dwarf beside an one so high 
As thee; for Argos is hut tract of God's 
Wide earth, while thou 'it a king of earth and sky, 
And have a superhuman power not mine, 
Or any king's of any town of Greece! 

Apollo. I know niy station. Some do not! Old men 
Grow foolish in their years, and cry like children 
For heaven's white stars. That every man could die. 
And kings of kingdoms in especial, ere 
Their second childhood make them babbling fools. 

King. What meanest thou'? Mine second childhood? Mine 
Lost wisdom? The great King of Argolis? 
Nay, nay, my lord and king. 

Apollo. Thy words shall answer, 

Sith gi^e a fool the hemp, lie '11 hang himself, 
(iive kings their tongues and old court clowns will smile. 

King. With quirks, vagaries, riddles thou dost tease me. 

Apollo. Thou hast thy tongue. Are all thy words of wisdom? 

King. Till now did never man impeach my greatness. 

Apollo. Till now thou wast great. Many a king's in dotage 
Wide years before he dreams it. Man does lose 
His head more oft than woman. My prediction 
Shall find a verification ere the sun 
Do mount the background hills of Argolis. 

King. In wise obeisance to an inner thought 
1 've come to thee. Wilt audience give that I 
May short express that thought? 

Apollo. I 'm here to serve 

Both sense and reason. 

King. Both I'll try to show. 

For never grandlier thoughts have passed the heads 
Of kings. 

Apollo. But, harken. Is 't not writ that kings 
Are wiser than their subjects? Dost deny it? 

King. Nay, nay, for kings do make the world. The rabble, 



ACRISIUS, KINO OF AB'rOS 1.1 

The throng would he disunion and disorder, 
With ruling kings dethroned. How oft the wisdom 
Is put to test of wisest kings to keep 
The empire right? 

Apollo. And is the King of Argos 

A king of this great line? 

King. His have beens are 

As proverbs told from mouth to mouth, their wisdom 
Is such. But, pardon, god of Delphi, kings 
Should meet on equal terms. 

Apollo. The great kings do. 

King. I *m but a king of Argos, a mere span 
Of land to thee unknown. While thou art god 
Of heaven and earth. So, bow i now to thee 
As one, the only one with power to aid me 
In all my newest plans. 

Apollo. Then out! What wilt thou'r 

King. I 'w one fair daughter lovely as the rose. 
She 's queen of beauty, with the limbs for noblest 
Sculpture; and Danae's presence is to me 
A henison of loveliness, a something 
That wooes, and lures, and wins. She is a queen ! 

Apollo. A queen? This Danre queen? For queens are few 
And far not on a throne. But, list! she'll soon 
Be queen ! 

King. Apollo! 

Apollo. For the marks of age 

Already show their furrowed lines. 

King. O god 

Of Delos, time rests lightly on my face. 
I 'no almost a young lad again. To dance, 
To sing, to play, to be a father, yea! 
To be a father ! 

Apollo. All thy talk is chatter. 

You do but babble like a poor old man. 
Recall the proverbs of thine earliest days, 
For repetition 's better than a sill v 
Word. 

King. Speech is tangled in my buo3 r ancy 
Of new delight that 1 am soon to be 
A father! For didst thou not promise it? 

Apollo. A father? Promise? Thou art past the hour ! 

King. OgodofPytho! hold such declaration, 
It i< the one ambition of my life, 
The hope of my decline. My life's one thought. 

Apollo. But Delia, thy true wife, is barren as 
Pasture fields. Dana 1 'if till thy place as perfect 
As living woman, more than thy own son; 
For she has grown up with thy empire, noted 
Thy reign, if not the wisest, greatest king, 
That e'er has reigned o'er mortal Argolis! 

King. But such my wisdom and maturity 
This newborn son would be a king from birth, 
A born king, not of blood alone, but greatness. 

Apollo. O once great king, thou hast my pity. But 



14 ACRISIUS, KING OF ARGOS 

This only. Pity'* to the weak, the helpless. 
So, hence, unreasoning king, and by thy holy 
Fireside, away from thrones and petty kingdoms, 
Weigh all thy folly, and prepare to die 
Id glory a^ thy coronation, proudly, 
Grandly, majestically ! 

King. <> Apollo! 

Apollo. For now does Argos love her greatest king. 
Because thou art her greatest king. Tomorrow 
Thou wilt commit the act to all undo 
This glory. Argolis does love thee now, 
Does love ihy wife. And Dame they havechosen 
Queen regent to the throne of ArgolU ! 

King. ()! drive me mad! Destroy me! Dub me fool I 
Yea. spurn me, curse me, stab! But never, never, 
(all Danae queen! Sith, ere 1 die, a son 
Shall come among my people, there to reign 
As King of Argos. wiser than his father. 
And grander, nobler, with a stature vast 
As great Apollo's self. 

Al>t>ll<>. 1 pity thee. 

Ami I deplore thee. For, man! O king! 
The hour draws nigh when thou shalt find a wonder 
In Argolis. Thy very home. Thy throne 
Shall shake, for Fate pursues thee like a sin 
Descended from thy fathers. 

King. Speak Apollo! 

For I this day have come to thee that Delia, 
My wife, my queen, may bear me such a son 
As time, and Argolis, and all the world, 
Shall call a King of kings. Wilt aid me. Phoebus? 
Flse do I perish in despair, seek death 
E'en at the cannon's front. Go down in gloom 
Into a nameless grave. For else a son 
\)i- horn to me, no footstone mark my grave, 
No sculptured slab emblazon my proud deeds 
As King of Argolis; but nameless, nameless, 
Be old Acrisius's memory! So, proud god. 
Listen to me! bear my piteous word. 
Wilt call divinity from the skies in aid 
Of me, that Delia, my true wife, may he 
A second mother, and her offspring live 
A breathing, kingly boy? Upon my knees 
I do implore it! Kings that bend the knee 
Should win propitious favor. 

Apollo. Does a tool 

(Jo babbling in the land? lias court clown lost 
His way, and mimics at a star-god's throne? 
Arise, weak man ! A coward king to bend 
The knee to less than God. Up, up, <) man ! 
Fie lightnings flash anil rend thee, thunders roll 
In volumed cannonade to shake the pillars 
That do uphold thy kingly palace. For, 
Dost hear me? Delia 's past her pregnancy! 
And even otherwise, the child would he 



ACBISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 15 



A fool ! For thou art in thy frosty dotage. 

You prattle like a child: a toothless woman 

In old decay. Stand bark, thy head erect, 

Once more to try to he thy former self. 

But, no Dost fawn and babble. Once proud mouth 

Hangs listlessly; thy eyes have lost their lustre; 

A foolish old-man king does stand before me. 

King. mercy, Phoebus ! 

Apollo. Meicy? Didst thy Delia 

Find mercy? Hack, once king and gloried ruler, 
And hear a god's decree. Thou 'It never be 
A father! 

King. God forbid ! 

Apollo. God will forbid ! 

King. 1 perish on my servant's sword! I die. 

Apollo. Die? Yea ! For fate has so decreed it. I 
Apollo, throned in clouds and changeless never, 
Do now announce thou 'It ne'er become a father, 
But queenly Da rise -halt soon bear a son, 
By whose strong hand, Acrisius, thou shalt die! 

King. And lie will slay me? 

Apollo. Yes. 

King. My daughter's son? 

Apollo. As sure as moons do rise and suns do set. 

Kin;/. Then vengeance, vengeance, e'er it be too late! 
But, god of earth and throned skies, O hear me! 
By all that 's grand and glorious in old Argos, 
I'prear for me a king! A worthy son. 
By all the majesty of Epidaurus, 
Troezene and my principalities, 
Grant old Acrisius this. For never glory 
To match the glory of the King of Argos. 

Apollo. Thy reign has been a rare and perfect one. 

King. My Dame 's well equipped to mount the throne; 
But such a kin» as I, may have a wish. 

Apollo. Wishes are hut the foolishness of kingdoms. 

King. Adelia 'il have her reign the one great queen 
Of Argolis; and yet she bendeth to 
My will. And so. propitious god, Apollo, 
Have charity. Men may have their base ambitions. 
Kings seldom. 

Apollo. But thy Danse \s fair as stars 

That shone on Peloponnesian plain. She's 
A jewel set in rubies in the crown 
Of Argolis, and there she 'II shine for thee 
With heaven's eternal lustre. 

King. But, Apollo, 

Though she 's a jewel of first magnitude 
I will to have a son ! 

Apollo. Thy will 's thy master. 

(Jo hence and sleep thy sleep of vanity, 
And as the draperied folds of golden curtains 
Do flaunt and float about thee, sleep and dream. 
And then awake, and then behold the empty 
Ambition of a Grecian kino-! 



16 ACJUSII'S. KING OF ABGOS 

King. Great I Van ! 

My malediction on the King of god-;. 
Old Zeus, and all lesser down to thee; 
For, by the grandeur that is mine, and by 
The glory of the throne of Argolis, 
I swear a son shalr, god! be born to me. 
Or Dame and the throne of Argolis 
Shall go to utter ruin, ruin, ruin ! 

Enter Ghost. 

(/Iiost. Thou shalt not only die a soilless king. 
But Danae's unborn Perseus shall slay thee 
With winged discus! 

King. Heavens, 'tis Danae's ghost ! 

\_He staggers hue/,-. 
( 'mini a falls. 

ACT II. 

SCENE I. 

Acnsius in the Palace Garden. 

King. Great God! to thee I lift my humble voice 
For mediation in behalf of me 
And mine. But, bah! A fool to raise my face 
To one so far in space, and little caring 
For kings, mere kings. 'Tis I, old Argolis, 
Acnsius, king of kings, where highest effort 
Must quick ensue. Who stronger than a king? 
And such a king as I ? Apollo, god ! 
I do defy thee! Phoebus, J do swear it 
By all the skies above me, rifted clouds, 
And space, and time, and earthly sovereignty. 
Things human and divine, and so inhuman 
As make the blood run cold, and shudders creep 
Across the fibrous system, gnawing, gnawing, 
Till life itself is torment, and the victim 
Begs for that mercy which is death ! Ha, death ! 
No son. No father. Bah ! and yet a son ! 
A wicked instrument in hand of fate 
To brain me in the glory of ray prestige. 
But, mark ye, lords and knights and ladies grand. 
And every cursed thing that breathes, this son 
Shall never be! This child-boy ne*er shall taste 
The milk of mother's breast, nor hear the voice 
That says: O baby mine, thou "rt fair as Danae's 
Sweet self, and she will cherish thee, and rear thee, 
As her brave boy-king of old Argolis. 
But this shall never hap. 1 "II kill this Dame, 
I "II drug her cups. I '11 starve her stomach jot 
By jot. I 'II prison her where worms do crawl, 
Where rats do gnaw, and must and damp and mold, 
And carnivals of vermin, stinking dank, 
Do hold high festival. I plume myself, 
I decorate my personality, 
Kecrown the noble brow of such a king 
As never ancient historv found a greater. 



ACBI8IJJS, KINO OF ABGOS IT 

Now, hark ye, I'll construct a brazen chamber, 

A subterranean dungeon, where new days 
Can ask no blessing, ever circling sun,-; 
Bid a good morrow. Once behind the bars, 
These dungeon bars, where rust will soon encrust them, 
I'll bill defiance to the gods, and even 
Divinity himself. 

Enter Dance. 

Dante. Good morrow, father; 

Why walkst thou here in silence and alone, 
With God's blue arch, and the sun-hidden stars 
So wondrous o'er thee? With the summer's balm 
From thousand myriad flowers, tulips, roses, 
Jasmine, anemones and fenced exotics 
Converged in one great cornucopia 
< >t loveliness. 

Ring. In sooth, fair Dame, life 's 

Buoyant on thousand gales enwafted from 
Arcadian Paradises. Thou didst seek. 
Thou soughtst the meaning of my present walk. 
Children and girls, and even men of crowds, 
Do little reck the rioting thoughts that course 
Kings' heads. To wear a crown, child, to the throng, 
The commonalty, may seem trifling act. 
But dost thou know an Atlas mountain weighs 
Not heavier than the crown of gold that glitters 
Upon the brows of kings? 'Tis thus I walk, 
T is thus I talk, 'tis thus 1 meditate, 
'Tis thus I find a solace in a yard, 
A pasture, a dungeon e'en, so that it be 
My mind from empire bondage is set free. 

Dance. As you are old, I felt — 

King. Old? Old? Who says it? 

I 'in in my prime. Maturity is last 
To grace the brow of kings and queens. The limbs 
May stiffen at the joints. But mind, the mind, 
'Tis greatest, grandest, at a man's old age. 
But, Dame, dost thou see the coming weakness 
That oft presages sure decline? Look close! 
Has lustre vanished from my eye? My face, 
Has health left gaunt and old emaciation? 
And do I totter in my steps? Am shaky 
Like palsied men who hasten to the grave? 
Look, Dame, look! My eye does sparkle now ! 
My lips are mobile, and my tongue has lost 
No pliability. I 'm young again ! 
The very thought puts vigor in my veins. 
My arm. We'll dance. My breath is quick as thine. 
Trip lightly, e'en in age. 

And finie will hold his breath, 
Only the old men die 
Who hunting go for death ! 

Dance. Father, thou dost surprise me. 

King. Dame, kings 

Are mysterious. All their thoughts are not to those 



18 ACBlsirs. KING OF Mia OS 

Who lend but lightly. Potent minds may search 

The intricacies of the minds of kings. 

Look hack in old-world history, and thou '11 read 

The lessons of the ages. Polytheism, 

The strange belief in many gods, was ancient 

Religion. Israelites may bear the palm 

For purity, simplicity and honor; 

But human kings of gods and men have won 

A great renown, until the name ot king 

Has dignity and greatness in the sound. 

See: King Acrisius! Dost thou mind the sound? 

Is 't not more potent than to say: A captain. 

A general, knight, and e*en a prince? It 's not 

So much the word as meaning that attaches. 

For such the work of kings from times unread, 

And read, still unremembered such'the age, 

That king, the word, has greatness in it, greatness. 

Dance. Yea, father, ana the name but as a name, 
Of king, did long ago impress me. 

King. And 

Dame, if so to thee, how much more so 
To vulgar throngs, who never rub against 
The vesture of great kings or little? For 
Association breeds a kind of low 
Contempt for e'en the highest. Our religion, 
Dame, believes in many gods-, divine 
And earthy. Wild adventures of our gods 
Have been the chief delight of Greeks. Ingenious, 
We've pictured them with skill and forceful arts 
Unread in any other nationality. 
Our gods are higher than a king, for death 
To them is nameless, unavailing, stingless. 

Bui/ if. On snow-clad mountains of Olympus reigned 
These gods? 

King. E'en so. And gates of clouds unclosed 

Their valves, to let celestials wing to earth. 
In palace of the great Olympian king 
They sipped their nectar, ate ambrosia rare. 
Old Vulcan made their golden shoes, their houses 
Of beaten brass, and chariot cars. The Euxine 
And Mediterranean were their only seas. 
But, Dame, why talk thus? Why tell of glories 
In high Elysium? Because a king 
Is more than these. Because a king is highest, 
Grandest and mightiest of created man. 
He "s more than man, sin once the name of king 
Has clothed him, he is deified, a — king! 

Dance. 1 know there's grandeur in the name of king, 
That certain noise, eclat, distinction, sound. 
Accrue from hearing. 

King. Right, my Danae, right ! 

And never woman since so rare a gift 
As thine that seest the greatness of a king. 
And may Aurora smile upon thee, child, 
And may sweet Zephyrus waft nectar sweets 



ACBISIUS, KING OF Am; OS 19 

Unto thy nostrils. And bright Helius 
Shine on thee as the wife of some great king. 
But, Danae, leave me. Younger men than I 
Should have thy time, sit h now the hour is uigh 
For you to wed some lord of chivalry. 

Dunce. I love my mother, and my father e'en 
A< duteous child. That other love I know not. 
But, let me leave thee to those potent thoughts 
That suit the heads of kings. [Ex. Dance. 

King. Adieu, fair lady. 

Indeed a lady born she is, and lovely 
A- ever Delia in her maiden prime. 
But, hark! Can beauty come at ween us? I 
To stand aside for sure ascension of — 
I pause. I hesitate. X>.no! I "II hie 
.Me hence. I "II seek the man that hews the stone, 
The great artificer who shapes the brass 
To sundry shapes and styles, with workmanship 
To tease the souls of in ister artisans. So, 
Adieu to all my principles, my love 
For Danae, all her virtues and unsullied 
Beauty. For tame is more to me than love. 
Is more to me than glittering gold, and rubies. 
If Delia die, then what 's to reck? She's past 
Faith usefulness, and lives in glories gone, 
In evanescent glamor and the hue 
And cry of thrones. I'll hence, for ruffian hands 
Must tear this daughter from her home, and thrust 
Her through the roof of this, her brazen chamber; 
Sitli it shall have nor door nor crack nor window. 
Save guarded aperture upon the apex, 
Down which hard villian hands shall lower her; 
And once my lady prisoner entombed, 
The end will soon develop, so that I 
Can strut the streets of Argolis unhampered; 
For never lover hath her secret, never 
A god can trespass till slow death hast made 
My child more beautiful in that last sleep 
From whence nor god nor man nor woman fair. 
Hast e'er returned, or sent a message back. [Ex. king. 

SCENE II. 

The Palace gardt n. Enter Dance and mother. 

Dance. But he has gone, my mother. Not a moment 
Hardly, and he went stalking up and down 
In loud-mouthed talk with such accompanying manner 
As struck me with a nameless fear, a dread 
Unborrowed, that some newer kingly trouble 
Did rack his brain. 

Queen. Come sit beside me, Danae, 

And list my tile. Thy father's blood is boiling, 
Fermenting, that he has no matchless son 
To wear his crown when he shall tall at last 
A clot of earth, a less than man, a mocking 
Disfigurement of clay, the soul escaped 



20 ACBISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 

At last to where? 

Dance. 0, mother! hesitate, 

For we are nol the judges e'en of kings. 

Queen. Nay, Danae, nay, we must not dare to judge; 
It is a fearful thing. But, daughter, child, 
The king' is strange. He dreams aloud. lie revels 
Like drunken man in nighttime, and he tells 
Of dungeons, chambers brazen, shining brass, 
Slow creeping death, a beauteous maid, a hoy. 
A babe, a son, and her son! Canst thou read? 
For dreams are truth, the honest revelations 
Of human minds unguarded. 

Dance. Mother, I 

Can justly apprehend a new affliction. 
( ) spare the word, but has he as a kins: 
Committed deeds that, might appeal to heaven ? 

Queen. O durst not ask me! He is what he is. 

Dance. I read. He has been tinned from strictest honor. 
But let it lie entombed. My cue "s this conduct. 

Queen. Oh do not borrow trouble, trouble, trouble; 
He's Hydra-headed, many-mouthed, and wicked, 
And waits upon the new-made bride, the bridegroom, 
The crowing babe. He mouths at every window; 
But, fears. You have them? 

Drum-. Aye, indeed. 

Queen. But list, 

He rages now. But soon 't will pass, I reck. 

Dance. Mother, 'twas once I bragged that I was born 
A girl, wore comeliness and native beauty; 
I looked to heaven with soft appealing eye; 
In mild approval and great thankfulness 
I honored God for it ! 

Queen. You pause. You bow. 

What means this transient mood? For transitory 
Such moods must be. Sith Dame 's envied by 
The whole great kingdom of old Argolis, 
That she's the king's one daughter, and the heiress 
Direct to his great throne. And yea, the damsels 
Of mere artificers too, and mechanic 
Man are today in envy of thyself. 

Dance. Poor damsels ! Yet they cannot know. A maid 
Anear a throne may seem personified 
To something finer, more idealized 
Than she that milks her father's kine. But, mother, 
God onl3 r knows how bitter and portentous 
The menacing fate of Dana'. 

Queen. Do forbear 

This wicked mood. For he, the King of Argos, 
Has only me in web of discontent. 

Dana:. O that 't were so. But, no. For should it hap 
That great Apollo still deny his best, 
And you do fail in life's first art, the birth 
Of one sweet child, his rage will repercuss, 
And then rebound against his only daughter. 

Queen. That this may neve) - hap. And yet, my Dana:. 



ACRISLUS, KING OF ABGOS 21 

Let 's pray for that divinest intercession 

Only the one great God can give. 

Dana . Vis, mother. 

Queen. Now let me lead thee forth where Peace is smiling, 
Where joys are still atiit, and tiptoe Cupid 
Does stand awaiting. Come, for woe is here, 
And petty strife for fame that has no reason 
Only in wicked mind of him who bares it. 

Dance. My father, king and proud, of Argolis. 

Queen. Thou'rt fair as Eos. To Hesperides 
I "d take thee ere too late. 

Dance. But kings are just. 

Queen. When justice does redound to them, their glory; 
But Erebus pursues thee in the person 
Of ohl Aciisius. once worshipping father. 

Dance. But you more nearly try him. 

Queen. I've no no; 

But, tailing I, his wrath may turn to thee, 
A sort of nightly Momus. But, O grant 
That I may bear this son; for though it lose 
The throne to Dame, 't will protect her life, 
And Melian nymphs shall pipe a newer song 
To beauty unrewarded and great worth. 

Dana-. I hope this accusation is at fault ; 
But though a Venus or a bright Eleetra, 
I 'd weep soft Iris tears ere I'd ascend 
The throne of Argolis against his will. 

Quern. Well said, and noblj T . Fair Ionian Greeks 
Will honor thee, and some new Cirnon love thee, 
And ocean nymphs from grotto palaces 
Shall rise on new glad waves to welcome thee. 

Dana'. Mother mine, thou dost seem a fair Selena 
In all thy mother kindliness to me, 
For God's great moon is calmness beautified. 
But, let's away to life's serener fields, 
And let good morrows build their fates for us. 

[Ex. Quern and Dance. 

Enter Arris/ us. 

King. Ye power* of hell and all satanic regions, 
I've done it! His infernal majesty 
Has set my head agoing till my brain 
Has builded such an architectural structure 
That Satan cannot enter. Hundred servants 
Stand waiting to my call. But, King of Argos, 
Trust now no man. Be now thyself thy servant, 
A hair, and thou thyself wilt fill this chamber! 
Felldaff the brazier", 1 will hie to. He 
Shall build this brazen tomb for living corpses, 
Sinee, hark ye, Dame and her blubbe 'ly nurse 
Shall hence where trite Omega crowns the dome. [Ex. King. 

Enter two villains, Hardspur and Brasher. 

Hardspur. Where went he, Brasker? 

Brasher. Just through the grove, Sir Hardspur. 

Hardspur. King or prince, his money "s ours. 

Brasker. For we need monev more than bread. 



22 ACBISIUS, KINO OF ABGOS 

Hardspur. Since without money without bread. 

Brasher. But, come. What matters it, lord or beggar, 
It' he have the stuffy 

Hardspur. Quick! I follow. [They follow with drawn swords. 

Enter Acrisius, followed by Brasker and Hardspur. 

King. Now will I forth to quiz old Felldaff. Jl 
As cunning as a woman, and can build 
His brasses with divinest inspiration. 
The figured beast or brazen slab is bis; 
The eouchant lion 's transfigured by bis art, 
lie 'II turn the brooklet into hewed brass, 
With waving tree and intersecting flower, 
Until, egad! you 'd envy him his glory. 

Hafdspur. And his brasses will outlast the fame of kings. 
Brasker. And stand in m mumental memory when 
The kings of Argolis are forgot. 

King. Ho, ho! What common men are these? Aside! 

Hardspur. This is gentleman Brasker, yclept villain. 
At your services. 

Brasker. An" this, me lord, is Hardspur, rogue 
At large, bis appetite always in bis stomach. 

Hardspur. And where should it be? 

King. Forsooth! A worthy couple. May a king — 

Hardspur. A — king! lie. he! 

Brasker. A — king! Ha, ha! 

Together. A — king! Ha, ha! A — king! lie, he! 

King. And dost thou dare intrude upon my presence? 

Together. We dare intrude upon thy presence. 

King. These jokes be grim with such a mind. Thy reasons? 

Together. An appetite 's no joke. We 're hungry as hunger. 

King. Then eat, bold sirrahs. The town 's full of bread. 

Hardspur. But the baker does guard the bread. 

Brasker. And the law does guard the money. 

King. Here, take my purse! A king, sirs! cannot dally. 

Brasker. A king! 

Hardspur. A purse? 

Brasker. Thy purse is sick to emaciating consumption. 

Hardspur. An' "sides, no king e'er bad such weakling. 

King. But I'm the king of Argos. See my signet 
Ring? Sec my diapered emblems, yea! my badges. 
And more, I "in in the boundaries of the garden 
Of old Acrisius. But dost, dare believe me? 

Hardspur. A king ! 

Brasker. A real king? 

Hardspur. We drop on humble knees. 

Brasker. For we are sorry we are caught. 

King. Arise! Put up thy swords. I 'd have thine ear. 

Hardspur. Take Brasker's: 'tis larger. 

Brasker. His; for 't would make a purse like any sow's. 

King. Have done. My bead is full of nameless meanings. 

Hardspur. .My stomach 's full of emptiness, and cries 
For mercy. 

Brasker. Mine cries for bread. 

King. As sure as I am now revealed the King 
Of Argos, just so sure will I make you 



AGBISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 23 

Both independent. Yea, ;i few days hence 

Thou "It come to me. Come armed. Come well prepared. 

For blood is in it! Beat the guards, t lie knights, 

But seize fair Dana', old Acrisius's daughter, 

Quick bear her to the dungeon quarter, where 

In brazen chamber, with her spluttering nurse 

You force her. For this wily brazier ten 

Short days henceforward will so build the room, 

That only hired men can find the cunning 

Passage. One week and three short days, my men, 

And she'll be ready. You "II be ready. L Ml 

Be ready. Canst thou understand my meanings? 

Hardspur. I understand, he understands. 

Brasher. You want starvation to murder her? 

King. Hush ! 

Hardspur. You want her grave dug a little sooner? 

King. Hist! 

Hardspur. We 'II take thy purse and serve thee. 

Brasher. The fatal hour will rind us as fatal. 

[_Ex. Hardspur and Brasher. 

King. Now will I on my way to busy Felldaffs, 
And have the brazen cage in readiness 
For wingless bird. One business is attended, 
The villain's part. And it bespoke a business 
Trait seldom the equipment of old kings. \_Ex. king. 

SCENE IV. 

In Dance's room. Enter queen. 

Queen. And I have come because I fear with thee 
A eiime is on the eve of culmination, 
Of whatsoever nature I 'II not dare 
To tell thee. But, my child, let caution mark thee, 
Let moderation lead thy steps. Be calm. 
Be placid. < 'aution may keep villains out, 
And moderation so construct thy walks, 
Thy movements, that his well-intended snares 
Shall rind no victim. And be calm and placid ; 
For calmness and placidity are oft 
Great generals ere the action of the troops. 
If days can pass ere guessed plot shall deepen 
To wicked culmination, time may change him, 
Aye! death engulf him. For he's old as men 
Who do prepare for coming dissolution, 
Because they know it. .More to God they turn; 
They look farewells. Their faces wear the sombre 
Hue that presages life's sad end. They make 
Their wills, with many a cunning codicil, 
And have a sort of hand-to-hand encounter 
With death himself. 

Dance. I mind the stress, the accent, 

All wisest actors show in studied parts; 
But, mother, language has no human meaning 
With application unto him however 
Well turned and studied, since thy ill-turned face 
Belies it. All thy manner, movements, pose. 



■j i Acnisrrs, king of abgos 

Position of thy head : for love has lii«. 

And hate and sorrow. Here the cunning actor 

Rfaes to heights of acting truly great. 

Queen. And so I rank inferior as an artist. 
With such a critic as my only daughter? 

Dance. Yes. For the king, ray fattier, has so changed. 
That some new language must he sought to hide him: 
Sitli in these moods lie needs another face, 
A new expression and a newer manner. 

Queen. Why tliinkst thou ±t>'r 

]><i,/<r. Because lie looks at me 

In such a style, I read: Yea, cursed the hour 
That saw this child a girl! My kingdom had 
She been a hoy ! 

Queen. ODanae! spare thy father. 

He "s in his imbecility. He meaneth 

Well. 

Dance. Mother, time alone can show it, time. 

Queen. But, Dan.e. I do feel the fullness of 
Thy meaning, and so feeling, I will hence 
That I may soon devise some means, some plans, 
To render matters plainer. [Ex. ijttcot. 

Dana . Oh to God 

That I had been a hoy! For then I'd tamed 
The Hydra, won my spurs, and heen a knight 
Of great renown. A prince-knight, ready to 
The throne, and perfect suited to my fattier, 
Willi emhlems, medals, and accoutrements 
Of kingly office, with a belted sword 
Ready for quarrels, yet undyed in lurid 
Blood. But a girl ! A weakly woman fair, 
A lily pale that lives for fleeting show. [Ex. Danes. 

SCENK v. 

FelldaJT* shop. Enter Aerisius. 

King. What, ho! thou burly giant with thy smutted 
Face, leathern apron, and a visage hard 
As adamant, e'en busier than the bee 
Of Hybla : dost thou know me, worthy Felldaff? 

Felldaff. I prithee, yes, the noble King of Argos, 
The first in peace, and first in justest quarrel. 
And, truth, the greatest king since Argolis 
Did grow a kingdom. 

King. Ha, well said, great Felldaff. 

And wast thou cunning in thy lite as in 
Thy work, e'en kings had feared thee, and the hammer 
Of merest mechanism were now unknown 
To thee. 

Felldaff. Dost flatter me, King ! But why 
This interview? 

King. Of that we "11 barter later; 

But hear me, kings are less than kings who go 
Not "inong their subjects, there to weigh their want-. 
And borrow greatness from the genius of 
The populace, the better to adapt 



ACRISIUS, KING OF ARGOS 25 

The throne to them, and show that kind of rule 
That climes and lands beyond the sea shall say: 
The King of Argos goes among his people. 
He seeks the brazier, glazier, and the men 
Of workaday employments, farmers, carders, 
And artisans of every hap and style: 
And thus deduces laws, and rules, and codes, 
That make his empire second unto none. 

Felicia f. A worthy manner, and Aerisius has 
That manner. 

King. So, we '11 interchange our thought; 

And worthy Felldaff, master workman in 
Brasses to ornament kings' foot-stones, zinc 
And copper to entangle in a fretwork 
Of rarest beauty of design, shalt cater 
To kingly ignorance, and while an hour 
In suave discussion of the common things 
Of life. 

Felldaff. I'm at your services, O King! 

King. Brass, sir, has been and is to be a stable 
Commodity. "('is an alloy of copper 
And zinc, anil 's used in household furnishings, 
As certain parts of fine machinery, 
As ornament in much creative art 
Devolved from genius. Yellow brass in ancient 
History, profane ar.d biblical, has been 
To me a theme of wonder. Rare musicians 
Employed it in their instruments of melody. 
Gates, vessels and a great variety 
Of articles had brass in varied forms. 

Felldaff. Thou talkest like master workman. 

King. I 'in mechanic 

Only as kins: among his books. What church, 
What throne, has such a finely rare distinction 
Unless the brazen candlesticks be part 
Of their equipment? Once inlaid on stone, 
Brasses become a lasting monument. 
Great kings that were to be commemorated 
Stood grandly in imperishable brass. 
The foliated cross is still of brass. 
Old altar tombs shone out resplendent thus. 
The church-way bore on paves these brazen emblems. 
Armorial decorations and inscriptions 
Were oft of brass, with such a trick of art 
As won the admiration of the world. 
Huge slabs of brass bore ornamental flower-work, 
Rivalling the flowers themselves. 

Felldaff. Then petty I. 

King. But hist! Thy ear, and yellow gold shall sparkle 
Within thy flaccid purse, and rubies rare 
Shine in refulgence on the fingers of 
Thy wife. For, hark ye, hie thee with a close-shut 
Mouth to the dungeon quarter of my castle, 
Ami there a brazen chamber build that hast 
No outlet but to heaven. And done, this chamber 



26 ACBISIUS, KINO OF ABO OS 

Of builded brass, and thou shalt be a king, 

A uioney-king. For gold shall cross thy palm, 

And diamonds glitter on thy workday fingers. 

Felldaff. The chamber shall be built of slabs of brass, 
Wit ti aperture so cunningly devised 
That only kings can mark it. 

Kimj. Knight of brass, 

Do this, and ne'er will brazen cage contain 
A lovelier bird. 

Felldaff. This work shall he my best. 

King. And keep thy mouth as close as brass itself 
That is the coffin of some pharaoh king : 
For.shouldst thou lisp a syllable, bold sirrah! 
The gods will be upon thee, and within 
This brassy dungeon thou thyself shalt perish, 
Aye, inch by inch, and jot by jot, as slow 
Vermin do crawl, and time, when watchers wait 
For coming death. Since this is from the throne, 
The king himself does usher it. So, hence 
With cunning tool and chisel sharpened fine. 
And all accoutrements of craft so deft, 
And may the blessing of Apollo crown thee, 
And may the gods propitiate thy work, 
And all good angels prosper thee, tdl time 
Do crown thy work with rarest consummation. 

Felldaff. 1 am nor Vulcan nor a god divine, 
With inspiration from the wonder skies, 
To build to beauty things of old mechanic 
Art. But, O King! Mnemosyne as guide 
To spoils of other years long buried, I 
Felldaff, will build to beauty's rare perfection 
A tomb of beaten brass to be the envy 
Of kings as yet unborn, and be a brazen 
Monument to builder's everlasting fame. 

King. May Phoebe throw a lustre on thy work; 
Asteria, like another milky way ; 
May Perses shine with new effulgence, Felldaff; 
Aurora smile from God's great sky, and I, 
E'en greater far than these, reflect my greatness 
To this, thy last great masterpiece. 

Felldaff. ' I bow, 

Yet not as empty men to kings, but for 
The wisdom of a man who 's more than king. 

King. 'T is nobly said, O king of men ! And may 
Some empire great as mine be crowning portion. 
For, Felldaff, if a man e'er lived uncrowned 
That more deserves it, then the fates are cruel. 
But, Felldaff, this grand tomb shall stand to thee 
When children yet unborn shall hear the story 
Of Argos's greatest king, how he did hire 
A noted brazier to erect a tomb 
Of brass lo place his daughter Dan* in, 
Forever to remain, or till the veil 
Of death should smother her. And pilgrims footsore, 
Make brave essay to read the brazen dates. 



ACBISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 27 

Felldaff. r l hou hast a knack of reading times unread. 

King. T is so. But "t is my greatest hour. To build 
A tomb, or build an empire 's now in balance. 
If Dame live, a perishing old kingdom; 
If Datne die, and kingly son be born, 
Then such a kingdom as no time has seen. 

Felldaff. And may thy greatest wishes be achieved. 

King. And so they shalt, by all the stars in heaven. [Ex. king. 

Felldaff. Forsooth ! And I 'm a tool to use a tool : 
And yet a kino; lias willed it, and a king 
Is law itself. From kings there 's no appeal. 
We commoners bow to the yoke and wear it 
With seeming grace, and do congratulate 
Ourselves that we are happy in a kingdom 
Of lavish laws, and purposes, and tenets, 
Not thinking that a wiser way could be, 
Or better modes of government prevail. 
O happy ignorance of every throng; 
VVe know to work, to strive, to build, to make. 
To love, to woo, to wed, to raise, to rear ; 
But, a great king has trespassed here. His word 
Is law to me. I have no other route; 
So, I will hence and build this brazen tomb. 

Enter Hardspur and Brasker. 

Hardspur. Now at him, Brasker, with thy glittering sword; sith 
Ff we "re to turn murderers we '11 commence on this workaday lubber. 

Brasker. Stand on the other side, Hardspur, to catch iny sword 
As I run it through him. 

Felldaff. But, gentlemen, are you crazy? 

Hardspur. Do n't let the word gentlemen befool us. Run him 
Through, my brave Brasker. 
Felldaff. Help, help! 

Hardspur. Now at him, Brasker. 

Brasker. Stick out your belly. There! I 've done it. Hardspur, 
Look upon an uncrowned hero, Sir Brasker! 

Hardspur. Let the curtain fall, "f is a climax. 

Brasker. And we are murderers. 

Hardspur. You ! [Pointing his index finger at Brasker. 
Curtain falls. 

ACT III. 

SCENE I. 

Zeus, the King < if gods on Mount Olympus. 

Zeus. How had the great world moved had Rhea, mother, 
And Saturn, father, not united r I 
Was babe of that connection, now the king 
Of gods and men. But, 'spite this hap, O World! 
I, Zeus, had not tasted length of life, 
Had not this mother, wiser than a king, 
Concealed me in a dark cave of Mount Ida, 
In Crete, where Hybla bees and doves did feed me, 
And all good gods attended, Amalthea 
Furnishing her precious milk of lifi j . But now, 
O wrinkled earth in all thy hoary years, 



L's ACBJSUs. KING OF ABGOS 

Thou Qndst me not the swaddling babe of tears, 

But Jupiter giant, with a power to shake 

This great Olympian throne, go thundering down 

The centuries untold, with consummation 

Of old earth glory, as shalt last as long 

As time himself. The thunder is my weapon, 

. Egi- invulnerable shield, that Vulcan 

So builded howling storms and tempests eome 

At potent bidding. The majestic eagle 

Is yet my favorite bird. Of tree-, the oak. 

Growing upon the everlasting bill-. 

And master of the storms and time himself, 

Is sacred. He 's a king. I only am 

Greater. I am the national god (if Greece, 

Greece with a glory as the setting sun. 

Her Doric art the admiration of 

The world. Her old Ionic architecture 

Descended from Assyrian land- to be 

Perfected by the Grecian knight of plumb, 

And line, and level. Where is any land 

To match old Greece's pure Corinthian art? 

Our marble Caryatides modelled from 

The loveliest female figures of all Greece? 

And where 's the land to boast a lovelier woman? 

Our Doric, copied from the wooden huts 

Of aborigines, is perfect Greek, 

And our Ionic, with its fine volutes, 

Is classic, our < alliiuacbus with wings 

Of inspiration soaring to the skies! 

But, Greece, with all indebtedness to Egypt, 

And old Assyria, what art is such art 

As human forms divine? A perfect man! 

A perfect woman! Greece, thou hast these rivals: 

And yet the marbles of thy classic land 

Are perfect imitations, and are glorious. 

But in the midst of all this human beauty. 

And in the midst of all this sculptured art, 

I hear of one, a lady fair, who shines 

As Venus star, and is the only daughter 

Of a great king, the king of Argolis. 

Her name is Dan;e, and by all the gods 

Of earth and sky, and angels winged in space, 

She shall be mine! 1 "d wed her for her beauty, 

And all her loyal notoriety. 

Nor lord nor lover nor the king himself, 

Defy me. Now, Olympus, will I go 

To Argos on this hiffh acropolis, 

And fetch a bride to thee to be thy queen, 

And beauty's ruler till the world shall fall. [Ex. Zeus. 

SCENE II. 

/// the dungeon quarter. Enter Felldaff. 

Felldaff. I 'in but a tinker in the land of Hellas, 
For only tinkers do the bidding of 
A pirate lord. But here am 1, the master 



A CBIS 1 1 'S. Kl N( I F A n G S ■ 29 

Of Grecian brasses, turning all my art 

To basest end. For though I said it not, 

Yet Felldaff smells a fine malaria 

In King Acrisius's kingly disposition. 

The king's in trouble. T is a human something 

That vexes him, insures his sovereign choler, 

Or else this brazen chamber had not been. 

1 "in in my native country, in a land 

Of freedom, art and literature, of song, 

Philosophy, and genius for all greatness. 

The Adriatic, and Ceraunian range 

Of mountains are our boast, and old Olympus, 

With king of gods. And yet is money my 

True god. I may admire Cambuniau ridges, 

The great ^Egean sea. and Mediterranean, 

Ionian waters leaping into song; 

But gold ".- my god. The king will tap his mine. 

The Gulf of Arta, or the Gulf of Volo, 

.May still entrance me. Yet. O Fame! of thee 

Felldaff must sing another song. And still, 

I mind me of the hours and hours I spent 

In building Grecian brasses, my creations. 

Second to none. The Pindus chain of mountains, 

The backbone of old Greece, may now enthrall me, 

Dividing Thessaly fiom old Epirus, 

(ape Sunium and Helicon, Hymettus, 

And rugged Pass of famed Thermopylae, 

May have a kind of inspiration ; vet 

Fame! and yet, O earthly Glory! I, 
Felldaff, must woo the mammon of the world. 
So will 1 build this glowing chamber, tomb, 

And keep the tongue of Felldaff from its wagging. 
This tomb may be my own brass mausoleum. 
But King Acrisius has decreed. A brazier, 
No word. So, now adieu, dear fame and art. 

1 go to build a tomb for some lone heart. [Ex. Felldaff. 

SCENE III. 

The King in his bedchamber alone. 

King. Good Felldaff is at work. I hear his hammer. 
Now will I curb my temper and await 
Expected hour that sees my Dana' bird 
Encaged in walls of brass, with single nurse 
To tease the hours away, till such an hour 
As time shall build from bitter days to come, 
And Argos shall not have an inkling. Kings 
Can keep a secret, else how blank the history 
01 kingdoms, in the eye of day. Am i 
Not wise as any'/ I can hold a secret. 
For am I not as one that 's versed in lore? 
In language? Every male heir to a throne 
Is reared and bred and tutored, till he lives 
A monument of scholarship. Not only 
Was great Acrisius taught his Greece, but Rome, 
Italy, the world. Of architecture, Doric, 



30 ACRISIUS, KING 1 OF ARGOS 

Ionian, and Corinthian. What beauty 

Did that grand temple at old Corinth boast 

In Doric loveliness! Old Beni-Hassau 

Tombs being models. Grandest architraves 

Stretching from pier to pier in airy tracery, 

Suggesting dentils and modillions of 

The cornice, Pol3 r gon and fluted shaft, 

Fulfilling all their magic parts. But why 

Durst I dare prate of earth's acquired wisdom, 

When, ah ! a tomb is building for a queen? 

And yet I dare be boastful. Vet I dare 

Be proud of letters. Oft in fine review, 

I *ve wandered o'er the field of great invention-. 

The temple grand of Theseus. At Athens, 

With greater Parthenon, and Jupiter's 

At old Olympia, and Apollo's at 

Kass.e, Minerva's too at Sunium, 

All in the glowing asje of old Acrisius ! 

But, hark! The brazier's hammer plays a song! 

It draws me from my reverie. Its music 

Is mightier than the music of our churches, 

Our theatres, in tetrachords of sound. 

But I will hie me to this Felldaff brazier. 

He'll prate to me of Grecian art and worth, 

And how old Argos kings did find their birth. [Ex. king. 

SCENE IV. 

In tin- dungeon quarter. Felldaffat work. 

Felldaff. O brazen tomb, 'mid all my Grecian brasses. 
Thou takst the lead. As long as old Alpheius 
Flows from Arcadian latitudes through Elis, 
So long this brass shalt stand. Thy waters too. 
May mingle with Ionian seas and lose 
Their song, and still this pyramid will be 
Eternal to the brazier of old Argos. 
E'en time may chase his fame adown the stream 
Of death as old Alpheius Arethusa, 
And yet shale brazen monument remain. 
Famed Athens, ancient state of Attica, 
Shalt perish from old earth and history ere 
The work of Felldaff fadeth. < >, Cecropia! 
Didst ever hold a like? Wast one in all 
Thy Attic tribes? Did Theseus hear tell V 
O celebrated Gulf of old Saronica! 
Did such a Felldaft' breathe within thy waters? 
Phalerum harbors, didst he here embark? 
O five-mile Walls ! O forty Stadia! didst 
Thou ever hold the likes? O Salami* ! 
<> Marathon! with splendid buildings, temples, 
And all magnificence, will FelldatTs glory 
Be as imperishable as thine? He comes ! 
Great king, a brazier's welcome. I 'm as busy 
As 't were a monument to Felldaffs memory. 

Enter Acrisius. 

King. Indeed, and so it shalt be, for 't is work 



ACBISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 31 

Of art; and builded for a king is sure 
Renown. But, good my Felldaff, time is flying. 
Are all thy blows as quick as love in youth? 

Felldaff. A} r e; for 't is love, ambition, loyalty; 
Love of that work, ambition for that work, 
And loyalty to that king of Argolis 
Who hath no peer! 

King. Sir Felldaff", it is said; 

And were we prisoned in the palace cellar, 
Felldaff' should taste my Greco, the fine Cipro, 
White and black moscada, my Livadia 
And rare sultana, with vinification 
Perfect a« gods* wines. 

Felldaff. Then the brazen tomb 

Should halt, with wine-drunk brazier at his wits. 

King. On Santorin "t is glorious to be winy! 
Sweet Malvoisie is found in many lands. 
The fine red wine of Zante passes muster, 
Achaia smacketh of divinity ! 

Felldaff. Thy viticulture knowledge is superb. 
E'en now 1 smack ray lips in thirsty gusto 
At all thy winy wisdom. Malmsey wine 
Has often tickled Felldaff's palate, but — 

King. And hast thou tasted my divine Lepanto? 
It is superb. The tongue dost swallow twice. 
The vineyards of Megrera, dost thou know 
The gods do relish this as rarest nectar V 
And ancient Thera ! Blessings on thee. Aye, 
Blessings unnumbered, for the king forgets 
His throne, its vesture, and its hard exactions 
In dreams with thee. Oh, that a million pipes 
Did flow to Argolis! 

Felldaff. Great king, art tipsy 

On muscadine, Vin Santo wine of thought? 
Or hast the builded chamber so upfilled thee, 
Thy mind dost sway with new-found ecstasy? 

King. I "in not a king drunk o'er his cups nor swayed 
By grapes of Andros, Tino, nor the vats 
Of Naxos, for exhilaration does 
O'erjoy me, that although no kingly father, 
I "m soon to bury her that is to raise 
A son to slay the King of Argos. Bah ! 

Felldaff. A son? A father? Is the king deranged? 

King. Forbear the word. I spoke as one in wine. 
But, hasten. Time is digging thousand graves. 
A thousand tombs are making fast. But till 
This queen be once forever tombed, the vintage 
Of widest worlds has no appeasement. Taste 
Is cloyed. The mind is in a whirl of woe. 

Felldaff. Then will I fly as courier who dost go 
On kingly errands. 

King. And the King of Argos 

Will more reward thee than hadst built an arch 
Of riven brass to his gieat memory. \_Ex. king. 

Felldaff. And were the subject not a coward, Felldaff, 



32 A< HI sirs. KING OF ABGOS 

The master brazier, should so build this tomb 
That this old bibber king might die tomorrow, 
And fill its cavernous depths with empty clay. 
But kings do sway the world. Will time dare come 
When kings are not, and every man shall have 
A voice? But on, my Felldaff, kings are mighty. 

Enter Dance. 

Dance. O noted Felldaff, with thy brasses scattered 
Throughout old Greece, what wonder hast thou now? 

Felldaff. queen ! my mind is scaled by kingly saw. 
My tongue is cloven to my mouth since 1 
Was delegated to this work. 

D'liin-. " Intrusive? 

Felldaff. Not more intrusive than a star, a flower. 
A (jotted lily innocent as thou. 
But, daughter of a king, and fair as Venus, 
It not thyself a Venus, in my honor 
I 'm nor io say my thought. 

Dance. Then I 've intruded? 

But honor unto thee for honor thine, 
And may st thou win new laurels in the realm 
Of brass creations. 

Felldaff. No offence, dear lady : 

And Felldaff thanks thee for this happy kindness. 
Since though the world, its people, and the realm 
or Greece do know and honor me, 'tis seldom 
A very queen descends to deign me homage, 
< >r east a glance at such creations. For, 
Dear lady, and so fair, most kingdom adjuncts 
Are busied more with life's new passing fashions, 
The petty gewgaws of time's passing styles, 
The evanescent, fleeting follies of 
A day. ' T is 'bus a brazier's great conceptions. 
Or Phidian sculptures, built in imitative 
Ait of mere passing styles of human dress, 
Do seem like ancient furniture, lint he 
Who sculptures to the life, the nude in art, 
Has everlasting monuments to his 
Givat memory. For does nature find no change. 
But styles, I trow, do change like ladies' minds. 

Daw?. Thy soft impeachment is so couched in wit. 
And climaxes so all thy feast of praise, 
That Dana' says amen to all thy wordy 
Wisdom. 

Felldaff. But some do say that thrones alone 
Possess all wisdom. 

Dance. Felldaff, bite thy tongue 

For such estrangement of the truth. The king 
Is but a human being. Wisdom 's given 
To few. An education may develop; 
And yet how oft we hear of Felldaff greatness 
Beneath the shadows of old thrones. Too much 
Assistance and does genius pale and wane. 
Enter queen. 
Queen. And so I 've found thee, Dame? 



ACBISIUS, KING OF APMOS 33 

Dance. Yes, ray mother. 

(/Keen. And watching worthy Felldaffin creative 
Art? Only finest senses have the trait 
That lines these things; sith art for art alone 
Is high achievement, and dost e'er outsoar 
The vulgar mind. 

Felldaff. Indeed, queen lady; but 

True fame to such as I, is "yond the portal. 
Death. 

Queen. Haply for a few, but Felldaff, never. 
Already Grecian bards have sung thee. Time 
Too has crowned thee more than king, for kings 
Do die, with no memorial to their glory, 
While Felldaffs live forever in their art. 
But, famous Felldaff, sir, what hast thou here? 
The«e slabs of polished brass. What mean they? They 
Do look as cold as death. A very tomb 
They do appear, post pause? Thy head is hung. 
O Dante! ray true child-queen, lean reck 
'T is crowned Acrisius's brazen tomb, his tomb 
Of nightly dreams, and near the dungeon quarter. 

Dance. Sir Felldaff 's honest as the day. His hand 
Has never shaped unworthy thought. He loves 
His art, and generations yet unborn 
Will say: The jincient brazier, Felldaff, never 
Builded his brasses unto prurient minds; 
But everything in loftiest conception. 

Felldaff. [Aside.] Mav palsv seize me if I dare dishonor 
The name of Felldaff! 

Queen. Thou wast speaking, Felldatt'. 

Felldaff. Indeed. But common braziers, queen, are best 
Unheard, and in their proper places. 

Dance. I 'm 

Sure Felldaff" s words have teen of sense. But, mother, 
We tarry. 

Queen. Yes; we will awav, for I 
Do feel a strangeness in this dungeon place. 
Which soon will wear away in other scenes. 
So, come, my Danse, for the king is moody. 

Dance. 'T is nothing new. But his strange meditation 
Has grown upon him, till I know not father 
As noble king of Argolis. And 'sides, 
A dread is creeping over me of times 
Not distant, when new troubles will attend. 

Queen. We "II hence, and pray for better dispensations. 

Dance. And lend thy arm. I feel a faintness coming. 

Queen. Good child, the ways of kingdoms are a riddle, 
Glitter and glare and pompous show and baubles, 
Make up the sum of kingdoms. Come. We'll think 
Of common people, and the hallowed beauty 
Of cottage homes. I 'in sick of kingdoms. 

Dana'. I, 

Too, mother; and I 'd change my lot with maid 
Of lowlier worth ; for thrones are happy only 
In seeming;. 



34 ACBISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 

Queen. Conic. As Youth and Age we 'II wander, 
binding a kind of solace in communion. 

Ex. Dance and Queen. 
Felldaff. And so a kingdom "s not a Paradise; 
And so a throne is not a bed ot roses. 
So, look ye, worthy Felldaff, tlion "st the tame. 
And thou 'st the happiness. In tine, thou art 
A king thyself, a very king. The tomb, 
The brazen grave today ot some unknown, 
Is verging on completion. Master strokes 
A hundredfold and thou bast done thy work! 
Enter Brasker mid Hardspur. 

Brasher. Mo. ho, Felldaff! Thought we killed you. 
Hardspur. Ha, ha, Fellddff! Sir LJra.sker tried to kill you. 
Felldaff. Brasker and Hardspur, my would-be murderers! 
Together. Aye. aye. Lord Felldaff. 

Felldaff. And why a lord, oil spurred and booted rowdies? 
Brasker. Thy wit is grim as brazen tomb thou buildest. 
Felldaff. A brazen tomb? What uecroiuaey 's this':' 
Hardspur. It is the wisdom of a lord of tame, 
Who dares to sink his art for hireling's lay. 

Brasker. Because, ma foi ! a king has hidden it. 
Felldaff. What cowards these to read the future worfd? 
Brasker. All three cowards. Hardspur, my friend in trespasses, Fell- 
daff, a double-minded man, who turns from his immortal faun.' in 
Greece's noblest brasses, to build a hireling's tomb lor queenly inno- 
cence because a wicked king has decreed it, and Brasker, because 
he 's a vidian because he 's poor. 
Hardspur. Ho, ho, thou man tamed in two continents. 
Art thou trembling? 

Brasker. lie treinbleth like a wicked aspen. 
Felldaff. Thou mayst be featured like a courtly fool, 
But, faith, thou hast the wisdom of a god, 
Klse who lias dared to prate of kingly secrets? 
Brasker. The king himself. 
Hardspur. A very king. 

Felldaff. Thy wisdom doth belie thy addle looks. 
'T is coward's part to play an eavesdropper. 
Brasker. But we never dropped beneath the eaves. 
Hardspur. And the drops of the eavts ne'er dropped on us. We got 
in need of bread. The town had bread, but money was the little re- 
quisition. We had neither. So, honest Felldaff, we knew the king 
had both. We crossed his path. We met his arguments withdrawn 
purse. We drew our swords, and he, Aerisiu. — 
Brasker. Drew his purse. And that 's not all, great Felldaff. We 
two handsomest men in Greece, are hired gentlemen to steal daugh- 
ter Dame from her mother's arms, and secretly inipiison her till she 
die in Felldall's funereal sepulchre. 
Felldaff. that I 'd ne'er been born a kingdom's genius, 
For then had Felldaff been an honest man. 

Brasker. We do pity thee in humbler language. 
Hardspur. But uur crime is triple. We are Greece's 
brazen triplets. 

Brasher. For, if not triplets in birth and likeness, 
There 's not a jot o' difference in our calling. We 're 



ACBISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 35 

All scamps. 

Felldaff. Felldaff cannot retract, else offhis head. 

Hardspur. But honor's more than fame. 

Brasher. And honesty 's more than heads. 

Felldaff. How wicked be the times! Will promised lord 
Descend from curling clouds, and teach this world 
Virtue and purity, honesty, uprightness? 

Together. Ha. ha. 

Felldaff. A brazier yet may have a soul, and will, 
For here 's the last great stroke that makes the brass 
A wicked tomb and brazen monument. 
*T is done! And help me, heaven, for ne'er again 
Shall Felldaff's art be hireling to a king! 

Hardspur. Well said, my newly convert. 

Brasher. Thou 'st more culpable. We do work for bread. You 
For money. But. hereafter, good Felldaff can build to 
Beauty little wingless (Hpids. With skill unrivalled, 
He can shape the brasses of the gods, the good gods. Little 
Brazen angels he can make. Of shining brass he can 
Fashion cherubim and seraphim. 

Felldaff. My work is done. I go to seek a holier 
Companionship, and then will sing and pray 
For Hardspur, Brasker, and their likes, for such 
Are universal. Ail lands have a sprinkling. 
So. Brasker, faretheewell. And worthy Hardspur ! [Ex. Felldaff. 

Brasher. Adieu, reformed Felldaff. 

Hardspur. And may you ne'er be tempted for want of bread. 

Brasker. Ha, ha, Hardspur, a fine species of reformation. 
His conscience smote him 'cause we trespassed on his secret. 

Hardspur. But we'll not repent till the hangman trespass on ours, r 
smile at weaklings of such sort. Give me a pirate, with beard 
descending to his lap. An eye that pierces like a dagger. The voice 
of a roaring lion. A mien as august as a king's. 

Brasker. And belted sword, and pistol, and usrly knives. Egad! I'd 
be a pirate myself had I the king's wherewithal. For to rove the 
seas, sing coarse songs, and be a bravo murderer, is pinnacle of 
earthly glory. 

Hardspur. Hark! Who comes? 

Brasher. The king! We'll secrete ourselves behind 
These wings and hear a king's unguarded soliloquy. 

Enter Acrisius. 

King. Alone? And Felldaff gone? What means it? Ha! 
The tomb is builded! lie has done his work. 
And such a work as this! It has the grandeur 
Of ancient tombs. And 't is sublime beyond. 

worthy Felldaff 'tis thy masterpiece! 

1 knight him now, for such his inspiration 
In this new work of high creative art, 
That never man in any kingdom far 

Or near, hast greater right. And now, O tomb 
Of splendid brass ! I bow to thee as one 
Who feeleth all the splendor of a purpose 
Moulded from thought, and stands a monument 
Of glory unto him as rare creator. 
Rich ichor flowed within his noble veins, 



:)C> ACBISIUS, KING OF JL'GOS 

\iid goodly wines from clouded thrones. O Felldaff, 
Thou "st greatest in thy wickedness! But, sooth, 
I'hou hast no blame, nor I, nor Hardspur, Brasker; 
Kor kings must live in their inviolate trusts, 
Whoever die, since such the need of kingdoms. 
If other, soon the vulgar would ascend 
The throne, and so degrade it, that all empires. 
However old, would topple to their fall. 
Enough. Apollo does decree that I 
Shalt never be a father, and decrees 
That Dana- shall become a mother, and 
This son of hers shall slay the king of Argos. 
But, Dante. She must find her living tomb ! 
Hardspur, Sir Brasker. Would they "d come to me, 
For every hurried moment drives me to 
I'he tomb of old Aerisius. Ere too Late 
This downy bird 1 'd sore imprison. For 
Kven a king may be too late. I fret. 
I5ut Danae's ghostly apparition? Strange! 

Kilter Hardspur and Brasker. 
\nd so they 've come to echo of my word. 
Good worthies, dost thou find the cage in waiting? 

Together. VVe do. 

Hardspur. And such a work of art that e'en a king's 
Daughter should love to die for such a comb. 

Brasker. Ay, sir. And we but do the part of friendly 
Mediators in stealing this Dame from so corrupt 
And fleeting a world, and place her in ibis 
Brazen and immortal tomb. 

King. The king does well agree with thee. But time 
I< raven-footed, and the busy hours 
I >o chase each other toward death with such 
Exactitude, that even kings on thrones 
May well be expeditious. So the hour 
Demands the utmost urgency. My daughter 
is now within her room. Despite her cries, 
Her protestations of new innocency, 
That rare equipment of the justest word 
In altercations of this sort, do seize her, 
And boldly bear her to the dungeon quarter, 
\nd make her happy visitant of Felldaff's 
Immortal handiwork in beaten brass. 

Hardspur. And wilt attend in person ? 

Brasker. For a kind of eclat will so be lent. 

King. I 'II plant me here beneath her window-stool, 
\nd note the acts of paid subserviency : 
\nd when the deed is done, then wilt the sovereign 
■Jeshrew himself with paltry lucre. Go! 

Hardspur. We do thy bidding as the shadow of a king. 

Brasker. And if she cry this cloak shall hush her. 

[Ex. Hardspur and Brasker. 

King. Ta ! what could be more near a guillotine, 
Or rack of inquisition than to be 
Alone with one's own guilt? But, fab! a life, 
I'he life of merest kin": is more than hers. 



ACBISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 37 

If conscience hold the reins of human self, 

Then Dana' lives, and old Aerisius dies. 

A palace room can easier spare its queen 

Than kingly kingdom its great ruler. So, 

The hand of fate dues fall, hut in that fall 

An empire lives. So, Conscience, thou dost err 

In this great hap. For kings are more than queens, 

And kingdoms more than palace ladies. Ho! 

The mad besiegers do their work! She cries. 

What, ho! she scapes them, and outstrips the deer! [Steps aside. 

Enter Dame wildly, screaming, the villains in inn-suit. 

Dance. O piteous Father! save me from my friends, 
For all my enemies are more outspoken. 
(oine boldly out, no secret innuendoes, 
And stab me with the venomous tongue of slander. 

Hardspur. Ha. thou hast the wings of the wind. 

Brasker. But canst not scape such worthies a? Hardspur and I. 

Dance. O mercy ! Mercy! 

Brasker. Tome. Foi golden ducats, polished by kingly 
Pockets, await the drama's climax. [Seizing her. 

Hardspur. Hold her fast. 

Dance. where 's that kingly father who did rear me? 

Hardspur. Silence, lady, or this broidered cloak 
Shall smother. [Throwing it over her h<'<t<i. 

Brasker. Now will we hear thee to that divinity 
The tomb, where vidians molest not, and kingly 
Fathers hold their peace. 

Hardspur. And here "s thy tagging nurse, Betta; she'll 
I!e thy vacillating companion. [Seizing her.'] And 
She dost quack like cottage hens after the birth 
Of an ^gg. But come Time "s impatient, and 
Thrones do balance on the result. [Ex. all four. 

Kim/. And now does comedy assume that other 
Shape, murderous tragedy, and king of Argos 
Can sleep 'hat Sleep that knows no conscience, and 
Has no bald Fear as midnight's dread companion. 
So, now, m v crowned Apollo, rear this son; 
So, now, my still unpregnant wife, weep tears; 
So, now, old Argolis, receive again 
Thy crowned Aerisius, with a term of reign, 
That decade after decade shalt not find 
Nor change, nor trembling, nor a human 's fear; 
For wisest discipline and purpose mighty, 
Have now resumed their sway, and time to hel- 
ls naught. Sith clanging bell, nor prattler's voice, 
Nor sounds nor hums of time's triumphal march 
Shall reach her ear. She's dead to me, to Delia. 
And to herself so far as towns are known. 
Or onward sweep ot thrones or dynasties. 

Enter queen, excitedly. 

(Jin fit. () husband, quick! For ruffian. hands have fouled 
The person of our l>an;e with a hostile 
Touch, borne her off in brutish violence. 
Quick! quick! oh valiant king! I faint, 1 faint! 

[ Faints as king rushes otit. 



38 ACBI8IUS, KINO OF ABGOS 

King. I '11 trounce them hip and thigh and eye and tooth. 

[Ex. king. 

SCENE IV. 

At the brass chamber, Hardspur and Brasher holding Danaz and nurse. 

Hardspur. Silence, lady, for the fates arc 'gin thee. 

Brasher. And thou squalling nurse, hush thy babbling, 
Or Hardspur '11 many thee 

Dan.iv. But 1 'in the kingdom's only daughter. Spare! 
And good old king Acrisius will reward thee. 
I do implore thee, strangers. See. with hands 
In supplication clasped I pray thee now 
Unhand inc. By the love you hear that mother 
Who suckled thee, give me liberty! 

Hardspur. Hut 't is ;i chamber monumental in 
All loveliness. And 's the work of Greece's noblest master. 

Dance. Felldaff! 

Hardspur. So. enter quietl}*, and the good king, thy 
Ambitious father, Shalt hunt ihcc at leisure 

Brasher. And you. dear Betta, lovely as a bloated 
Dumpling, go thou first, or Hardspur shall marry 
Thee for forty year. 

Betta. <>. oo. on ! I smother. Dame, the plague on't! 

Dance. Oh helpless woman! We'll submit in grace. 

Hardspur. Then, Lady Venus, with love's liquid eye. ascend the dainty 
ladder Brasker has brought thee, and descend by other steps within. 
And the bickerings of the world shall not trouble thee. Nor over- 
turning kingdoms. 

Dance. Resistance is so frail a word tor woman, 
That, Betta, we'll ascend and enter into 
This brazen prison till time do liberate us, 
Or, mayhap, death by slow and subtle touch. 

Hardspur. There! thy well-fashioned foot is on the 
Rung. Do thou mount up, as angel, rung by rung 
To heaven. I '11 aid thee. 

Brasher. And Betta, an eastern glory, is already in 
The audience chamber awaiting thee. 

Dana. Farewell to life and petty kingdoms. I 
Go 'yond the reach of human frailty, where 
Death only cometh. Farelheewell, farewell! 

Hardspur. And may the goodly angels watch o'er thee. 
There, Brasker, they 're in it. 

Brasker. We two be villains. 

Hardspur. ' T is an age villainy pays. 

Brasher. Her violence has gin way to weeping. 

Hardspur. Her beauty should have saved her this. 

Brasher. Beauty 's no contestant with money-antagonist. 

Hardspur. Or kingly purpose in the scale. 

Thunder and lightning. 

Brasker. The gods save us ! 

Hardspur. An earthquake! 

Brasher. Quick! quick! Flee! 

Hardspur. The skies do fall. 

Brasher. We perish. I 'in killed. 

Enter queen. 



ACBISIUS, KING OF ARGOS 39 

Queen. O honor! What means it? 

Lightning flashes. Thunders roll. Both attempt to flee, Brasher falling 
dead, the queen standing as one petrified with horror. 

Curtain falls. 

ACT IV. 
SCENE I. 

In the dungeon quarter. Enter Zeus, finding Hardsptir and Brasher on 
the floor, the latter dead, the queen having fled. 

Zeus. By all the gods of heaven and hell, 1 "11 crack 
The earth if such like villainies prevail. 
I']), Brasker! Dead? Then well-timed thunderbolt, 
With lightning as precursor did its work. 
But, ho! Here's master Hardspur. Villain rise! 

Hardsptir. () King of gods and all God's deeds, I pray, 
Beseech thee, spare me as a victim of 
Necessity. Else I, "d hied to sistine chapel. 
And in the earthquake had my pater noster 
Well waded through. 

Zeus. Oh, craven, when didst lie 

However skillful, e'er deceive a god? 
Or man? Down on thy knees and quick unravel 
This riddle of this Argos king, and quick, 
Else oft recurring thunder jar thee from 
The earth, and hurl thee to that hot damnation 
Thou didst prepare for such an angel, coward! 
As God ne'er made before, nor seraphs dreamed of. 

Hardspur. I 'in well nigh dead, and parched with fear as never 
Man wot of. But, O Zeus! as we walked. 
Dead Brasker and my humble self, in palace 
Garden, old Hunger so besought our stomachs. 
That dire Necessit}-. mother of my guilt, 
I>iil force us thus to intercept the king, 
And with a meaning undeniable 
Unto such purpose that the King of Argos 
Not only offered bread, but such a purse 
As never poor man dreamed of nor a rich. 

Zeus. Oh palliate the rogueries of the world. 
The guiltless man is yet to come in promised 
Lord. Bur. my wicked cutthroat in the shape 
Of human being, so proceed that Zeus, 
King of the earth and skies, dost slay thee not. 

Hardspur. The purse, god, lined with rubies and the gems 
Of oriental kingdoms, was that Brasker 
And 1 should boldly kidnap his one child, 
And bear her screaming to the brazen chamber 
Sir Brazier Felldaffhad prepared at king's 
Behest, as he desired a kingly son. 

Zeus. And Danae, queen of loveliness, and star 
From heaveniy lands, stood in the kingdom's highway. 
Atvveen the throne and mad king's loud ambition? 

Hardspur. Only a god could guess it. But, Zeus! 
I do repent. 

Zeus. As shipwrecked mariner 



40 ACMISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 

With waves about his oars and succor gone. 
But such repentance 's not of gods. So. hence, 
For I would be in bettor companies. 

Hardspur. I *m thankful that ray wicked life is spared. 
But do thou liberate this Dana'. Zeus, 
Ere morning stars fade out before that greater. [Ex. Hardspur, 

Zeus. A srod is more than king. I 'in national god. 
And greatest of the gods of Greece. But here 's 
A king, a human king, the King of Argos, 
Who dares usurp divinity of gods. 
And build an empire greater than a god's. 
Oh, this lie wicked business, and dost smell. 
Cronos and Ubea. Hera and Neptunus, 
1 "m King of Titans. I 've assumed dominion 
« )f all the world, and lesser king to ape me'r 
And now will thrust him as I did the giants 
And bold conspiring gods. This Dame shalt 
Become the queenly wife of Zeus. My 
Supremacy is wide as earth. Dodoua, 
Arcadia. Crete thou lov'st me us any. 
And more. Thy worship is as high as heaven. 
I am the Jupiter of all the Romans, 
And Amnion (if old Libya. So. Acrisius, 
Thou 'It get thee hence ere Zens wrath do shy thee. 
My titles are as myriad as the stars 
That pale in heaven before the splendor of 
My coming. Various powers and function-, moral 
And physical, have honored seats to me, 
And natural, for I 'm law and order, I *m 
Protector of good kings, and god-, and men ; 
Avenger of all broken oaths, offenses 
Too dire for mortal management. I guide 
The stars in welkin blue above me. 1 
Wield yellow lightnings, and ordain the change 
Of seasons. Prophecy is mine, great Phoebus 
Received his oracle from me. Both weal 
And woe I can bestow. So. Dame, weal. 
So, King Acrisius, woe! For great Olympian 
Has said it. Ami Olympic festival 
Shall not ensue ere Zeus find his consort. 
My amours may he legion with immortal-. 
Ladies of loveliness; hut help me, heaven! 
This Dame maid shall find me pure as Grecian 
Wines. Though a god. a truer lover than 
A mortal daresl boast. I 'in deified, 
I 'm human. I "in a lover. I 'in a god. 
Zeus, king, is celestial as the skies. 
Young Phoebus might pursue his Daphne. I 
My Dame. Hark! [ hear a human footstep ! [Steps aside. 

Enter queen. 

Queen. The heavenly powers attend me. Here's a dead man! 
A vagabond, if looks do advertise him. 
But, O high heaven, god Zeus, and Apollo! 
E'en dead men, though they be as high a- kings. 
Have not the horrid interest that 1 find 



XCRTSIUS, KTXG OF ARKOS 41 

In loss of Danae. For I 've wandered halt' 

O'er Argolis; I 've wandered hither ward. 

And thitherward; through gardens and old rooms, 

l"p castle stairs, and down old dungeon steps. 

In banquet-hall, administrative court-room, 

And audience chamber with its marble busts; 

And I did cry out : Da use, dear, where art thou? 

At cellar doors, and: Dame, art thou dead? 

At garden walls, and: Dame, what's thy hap? 

At chamber starred of kings. In high old lofts, 

Where musts did smother me. In attics hung 

With spiders' intersecting webs. And such 

My woman's great temerity that even 

A dead man can nor stir noi move me, when 

Else, human death in human man had so 

Appalled me, I had died in human fright. 

But, Dana?, dead or living, thou hast armed me 

With superhuman courage; and a purpose 

Inflexible as fate. But, Dame! Danae! 

I cry. But, Dame. Danae! is the echo. 

Yet, hark! didst hear a sound in human tone? 

Did dead man in a grim resuscitation, 

Kegain the voice of life? But, no. He's still. 

He 's cold. A touch does send a shiver through me, 

And had I laid my hand upon the dead 

As now, cold death had gulfed me such my fright. 

But, Danae, Dame, e'en a human stark 

In death hast dread nor fear nor tremors cold 

At such a silence, such a calm. Nor lash, 

Nor eye, nor hand, nor foot its motion. 'T is 

The stillness of a corpse that frighteth me. 

Ye gods protect me! What do I behold? 

Great slabs of brass! Great brazen walls! What mean they? 

Nor door, nor outlet. Do I hear a smothered 

Cry as from dungeon depths? My ears deceive me. 

It is the beating of my heart. O Earth ! 

Thou art a mausoleum unto me! 

With Danae dead I 'II weep myself as de-ad 

As she. For I 'm alone so lone without her. [Ex. queen. 

Enter Acrisius. 

King. Delia did make the stars look down and weep, 
For such her misery. Ha! she little recked 
Her husband, the trood king, stood thus so near! 
I could but pity her true woman anguish; 
But what is grief when kingdoms are at stake? 
Is human woe accounted in the scale? 
A king should have his kingdom more at heart. 
But, let her weep, for tears do ease the soul. 
Vet had she felt me near and Danae nearer, 
How had her great heart leaped? How had she rent 
The air with burst of joy? But, Conscience, down ! 
A king should have a harder heart. What 's this? 
A man? A corse? Ye gods! 't is villain Brasker. 
Jove's thunderbolts have riven him. But, faugh! 
His work is done. And dead or living, .useless! 



42 Axmrsixw, kixr o f a eg os 

But thou, O tomb of brass I I do adore thee. 

Thou art a monument, to brazier Felldaff, 

And glory of a kingdom ; for thou mak'st it 

Possible for king to live. Born orator, 

Oration should be winged eloquence, 

1 crying : Danae, I did never wander 

O'er Argolis, since goodly king h;id spied thee. 

I did not wander thitherward, ha, ha. 

Nor hitherward. I did not pace the palace 

Garden, outcrying, Danae* Nor old rooms, 

Nor castle stairs, nor down old dungeon steps; 

In banquet-hall, administrative court-room, 

And audience chamber, with its marble busts, 

< lying aloud : O Danae, dear, where ait thou? 

Nor cellar doors, with Danae, art thou dead? 

At garden walls and chambers starred of kings; 

For, Danae, every golden second told me 

That thou wast here! and by the wisdom of 

Thy father. But triumphal time is marching, 

Seiond by second, toward the graves of kings; 

So in more comely season and more gracious 

Mood I will visit thee. A king's good bye, 

And, Danae, may thy soul find heaven on high. [Ex. king. 

Re-enter Zens. 

Zens. What villain he and angel she, his wife. 
But love of Danae held my thunderbolts, 
Else had I .shivered, hip and thigh, his bony 
Carcase, and hurled him to the vultures. O'hcr 
Matters involve me. Not the hap of states, 
The boom of kingdoms, nor the wider uproar 
Of princely doings, nor the carnival 
Of office, but new Cupid, lie 's my general. 
And be shalt scale the high redoubt, and land me 
Safely within the brazen tomb of her 
I love, sweet Danae, daughter of a king. 
So, while the mother seeketh vainl}- Danae, 
And villain king delighteth in his horror, 
I, King of gods, will woo ani win queen Danae. 

[Enters the brazen chamber 

Enter Hardspur. 

Hardspvr. Ha! gods deliver; Zeus-king hath fled, 
And 1, abused Hardspur art returned. 
For what? To get the moneys of the king. 
The villain moneys for my valorous deed. 
And what a villain 1? No, doughty hero. 
Brasker and I did seize a helpless maid, 
With ruffian hand compelled her with her nurse, 
To cross the threshold of old death. For never 
Again shall her sweet eyes revisit heaven; 
Never again shall smiling springtime know her. 
And drowsy summer with her miliion odors, 
No more shall offer incense to her nostrils, 
Nor paint the verdant field with ravished beauties. 
And fall with garnered feasts of spring and summer, 
Shall toss his yellow glories all in vain. ... 



ACEimUTS, laNQOFABGOS 43 

And winter cold, with diamond snows and starry 

Queen-crowns, shall be to her as vanity ; 

For she is dead as buried kings of old 

Dynasties. But, cist! I hear sepulchral voices. 

Art death-dreams of my murdered Brasker? He 

Js dead as yellow lightning shafts can make him. 

Come, once my lusty friend and boon companion, 

And swart accomplice of inhuman deeds, 

1 'II drag thee forth and unto thy poor funeral, 

As dead cold hero of a brave abduction. [Removes him. 

They say that dead men fell no tales. So, Brasker, 

Even as much as 1 respected thee 

In life, thy death dost till me with a thousand 

Terrors. But these sepulchral tones as from 

A subterranean cave, whence come they? Tust! 

They 're angel voices in the tomb of Danae. 

<> monumental brass of wickedness! 

Do>t Hardspur dare to liberate thy victim'? 

The great occasion *s one of eloquence, 

And therefore am I stirred by inspiration 

To speak the language of the Attic scholar; 

But Attic scholarship will ne'er release her. 

A coward all my days and petty thief, 

I "II now so honor self, that hoary time,. 

And life's recording angel shall forget 

The horrid deeds agone, and raise his brasses 

Unto the virtuous memory of Sir Hardspur. 

So, Dana?, and Acrisius's hapless victim, 

I come to be thy new Leander. Zeus, 

I 'd now defy the gods of Greece for one 

So fair. Queen Delta, I will twine a garland 

For thee, and soon festoon two severed hearts. 

Acrisius, wicked in thy kingly dotage, 

1 do defy thee and thy gold ; for Danae 

Shalt have her freedom. Conscience, thou 'st returned. 

I bid good morrow, thou art such a stranger. 

I knew thee when a child, and mother Hardspur 

Did tell me heaven was near. But she is dead, 

And with her thou didst die, but resurrected, 

Thou hast the same old face of innocence. 

But, Danae, Hardspur mounts the ladder. Rung 

On rung with Conscience I will climb, till kings 

May turn them back, and hold their breaths in trembling. 

What, ho! My eyes deceive me! Else the King 

Of gods be 'st fastened in this brazen tomb, 

And Danae bends her ear as love did tip 

With honey-word his tongue. The devils ! Zeus 

Has spied me! Now my legs hast thou forgot 

Thy speed when justice late pursued thee? Off. 

Or riven thunderbolts shall strike thee dead! 

[Tumbles down and flees. 

Zeus appears at apex of tomb. 

Zeus. Great Jove! Did mortal dare intrude? A silence 
As tomb of death dost now encompass me. 
Can god as I be thus deceivtd? T was wind, 



44 ACHI8IV8, JCIXC: or AEGOS 

The wheels of time in swerveless revolutions, 

Or busy death, with sixty funerals to 

The hour. Or hum of weddings busier than 

Death. Dame, come thou forth. Not less than gods 

Do dare assist thee. Mount the mortal ladder, 

And come as one that 's resurrected. 

Dana. Zeus, 

Great god of heaven and earth, I do thy bidding, 
For freedom 's dear as new remembered love. 

Zens. Divinest love of Jupiter Olympus? 

Dance. Yea, god-lover. But thou dost do a wrong 
In wooing mortal maid whose life is bounded 
By death. 

Zeus. But, lady, ray divinity 

Is off. I woo but as a mortal lover, 
And Perseus shall be golden ornament 
Of Danae's and god Zeus's marriage. So, 
Dare sit beside me in my throned garments, 
And hear the mortal love of mortal man. 

Dance. But such divinity as thine. O Zeus! 
Cannot he shifted as a broidered coat, 
Sitb heaven's divinity doth cling like love; 
Once on, the old earth nature disappears. 
And gods are gods despite their other nature. 

Zeus. And yet I love as god. On old Pandean 
Pipes ditties of sweet loves I 'II play, for thou 
Shalt be my human dale-nymph fair as spring. 
I ';1 be thy Bacchus with new wines of love; 
A i apt Adonis to bis Venus fair; 
As lovely as Narcissus in the story: 
No earthly love shall woo as well as I; 
No cart biy maid, e'en fair as art ray Dan 89, 
Shalt have a love more born of heaven. So, sit 
E'en closer. Love is cold without thee*, Danae. 

Dana'. Vet mine is but an earthly love, O Zeus ! 
And I am only Danae, daughter of 
An earthly king, the goodly king of Argos. 

2,e.us. And vet thou art divine. 

Dance. Through love's blind glasses. 

But list, O high Olympian god, thou art 
The deity of Olympus. Thou, too, art 
The god of rosy skies that, span above us, 
And for the asking youthful Hebe *s thine; 
And Thea. Themis, Phoebe and fair Tethys: 
A nod from thee and bright Electra comes; 
And Iris, with her dewy freshness, while 
I, Danae, art for thee no just companion. 

Zens. But thou dost rival all in love's eyes, Dame. 
Asteria, starry as the midnight skies, 
Aurora, briffht as any fulgent morning, 
Vesta and Juno, Ceres and wise Metis, 
Ate naught with thee in rosy Cupid's balance. 

Dana'. But I have read of gods and queens of air. 
Prometheus with the heavenly fire, Orion, 
Whom Dawn did steal from earth for mortal love, 



ACBISIUS, KING OF AUG OS 45 

Until Orion fell. And Helius, 

The fiery sun-god. Circe, Hie enchantress, 

And, king, thy own empowered Hecate! 

Zeus. Jealous? 

Then do I thank thee, for by this true test 
Is love first proven. Love that is not jealous, 
What is it ? Canst ray Danae tell? "T is like, 
'T is fancy, 't is a passing whim, a trick 
Of mind, that once the lover gone, a newer 
Dost fill his place. 

Dona'. Then do I love thee, Zeus, 

Sith by this test thou prov'st it. 

Zeus. Then, my slave, 

Beautiful as Greek that e*er did live. But come, 
Thy nurse awaits thy quick return. Once there, 
Away from trespass bold, and whispering tongues, 
And prowling men, thy Betta dear, will aid thee 
In rearing Perseus, thy god-son hero 
To be, and King of Argolis unborn! * 

Danoe. Then do thou aid me. Love has made me slave, 
And till such hour as Zeus king shall say: 
I, Danae, Queen of thy Olympian kingdom, 
And wife of its great king, wilt here remain 
Till summons comes to call me to my people. 

Zens. Dear wife, thou art the one true woman pure 
Of earth. But come! I lead thee as a lover, 
Though Hymen god have made us man and wife. 

[Dance re-enters tomb. 

Zeus. Xow, heaven, now, earth, and all the queens of air, 
And gods in starry space, I have a queen 
Old earth has never seen since time began. 
A few short months a hero shall be born 
To sway the destinies of rotten kingdoms. [Ex. Zeus. 

SCENE II. 

Enter queen, weeping. 

Queen. I live, but 'tis a living death. The king 
Is old and chatters in his talk. He mumbles 
Of vaults, of brazen sepulchres, tombed Danaes; 
And yet he never finds her, never seeks her, 
And when I ask him where is daughter Danae, 
Evasive answers, couched in bitterness, 
Do greet me. Then he wanders by himself 
As he would be alone, his wife intrusive. 

Enter king. 

King. By all that \s foul and festered unto death; 
By all the mouldering bones of dead old kings; 
By all the rotting corses of great knights, 
And courtiers, soldiers, hirelings and the mob, 
I 'm wroth as furies, wroth to desperation, 
Aroused to ocean tempests, and the snarl 
And whirl and wickedness of old damnation ; 
For 1 do smell a plot and treachery, 
And foulness, murder e*en if plot require it. 
And dreams do visit me in lustrous night, 



4-0 ACBISIVS. KING OF A7JG0S 

And when Latona's inky blackness palls 
The whole cursed world, ande'en in daytime, nighttime, 
If, once I drop my head in courted sleep. 
I 've heard it whispered, I am addle-pated, 
That once I was a king of kings, but old, 
I*ni imbecile and witless and do chatter. 
And babble, mime and gape and ape and stare; 
But "t is that I am mad, in wrath, in temper, 
That things do go awry, by contraries, 
When all my kingly life, the haps of state. 
The ponderosity of empires were 
To me mere whims, mere nothings, that a stroke 
Of kingly pen did settle. But the heavens! 
Now is the kingdom wrong", and signs do show 
That point to King Aerisius's overthrow ! 
Queen. Good king! — 

King. Good king"? Who dares to curse me thus? 

Ah. Delia, good my wife, and born a queen, 
Affairs id' state, and laws disjointed, have 
So disarranged me, that my strange excitement 
Did hear the semblance of a kingly anger. 
But, Delia, what dost trouble thee? 'These tears? 
[s Dune yet thy melancholy theme? 

Queen.' Yes, kingly husband, hut I find her not. 
King. But hast thou searched? 

(hiii a. As any world defective. 

King. Didst visit since this musky palace well? 
Queen. Ay. And in vain. The slimy toads did greet me. 
King. I "d wandered half o'er Greece by this late time. 
Queen. And I. But hitherward and thitherward, 
In cellars gi im, and musty loft ; in old 
Hack yards, and up and down till people wonder 
If Delia's mid. But, look! This brazen tomb! 
These slabs of brass! What ma\ they mean,<> Kins:? 
King. A whim, Adelia. "T is the work of Felldaff; 
For he "s ambitious as a khi£. But, come, 
Thy face is pale. Good health is more than brass, 
Than brazen tombs — 

Queen. But I've not hunted there! 

M\ Dune — my — 

King. Mad Delia, come away ! [Taking her hand. 

'T is cruel thus to wring thy soul. < !ome, come ! 
Queen. 1 grt. I follow. " But, I faint! hold me! 

[Faint* in his arms, and is carried out. 
Re-enter king. 

King. By all infernal happenings, this Delia 
Did wellnigh hamper me. But she's in swoon, 
And while she welters and her slow blood creeps 
Again through her old veins, I 'II end this farce. 
I Ml bare my arm to foulest deed. 1 Ml draw 
My knife and plunge it to her heart! See. see! 
The cold steel glitters! One fell stroke and all 
Is o'er. The years are gone since first Apollo 
Decreed me fatherless. But, she, Adelia, 
My sometimes crazy wife, still wanders hither, 



AVBISIUiS, KING OF ARGOS • 47 

And thither crying: Danse, Dana 1 , Dana 1 ! 

But le«t she find her and o'erturn my kingdom. 

I "11 end these four years" misery with the knife! 

These hired ruffians be the tools of tools. 

Today, this hour. I "II end the fatal farce. 

Now hush, my heart, sith with upraised knife, 

A valiant king dost near 'he brazen tomb 

Of one too fair to live, because a kingdom 's 

At stake. My kingdom "s more than human life — 

What, ho! I hear a sound! 'T is childhood's voice. 

Ye gods! has Dana 1 maid become a mother? 

And given birth to kingly son? If so. 

And it turn out Apollo".- great prediction, 

I '11 flay him where he stands, and plunge this dagger 

To Betta's heart for treachery, and kill 

The trio like to impious gods, and free 

My kingdom of it< enemies, and all 

My nightly dreams of gnomes and fears and dreads. 

And once again uprise in kingly prestige, 

And sleep the sleep of greatness undisturbed. 

1 m<>unt the tomb as once I mounted to 

The throne of Argolis. and people said: 

A king! a king! But Conscience now: A murder! 

A murderer! Ho, Betta! And ho, Dana? ! 

( ome forth ! The king of Argolis commands' it. 

Dance and Betta appear. 

Dance. And didst my noble father call me? That 
Father so good, so kind, so all endowed 
"With great humanity and worldly kindness. 

King. What? Curse the hour that saw thee but a girl! 
But look ye, hark ye, I "ve a query, woman; 
What voice heard I? A child's? A boy's? Speak out ! 

Dance. "T was childish prattle of my kingly boy, 
A lad four years, and beautiful as gods, 
And so resembling thee that men will say: 
Behold the grandson of the kino- of Argos! 
A worthy like successor to Acrisius. 

King. But tell me. who 's the father of this child? 

Dana'. O, spare him ! He 's the half-mod son of Zeus. 

King. Betta, dost thou so tell this trumped-up s'torv? 

Betta. Yes, O King! 

King. Then die at dagger's point for treachery! [Stabs her. 

Dance. O good my father, king! O spare him ! spare him ! 

Betta. I am murdered by a king! [Dies. 

Kin//. I 've tasted human blood of some base sort, 
And as the dajrger drips its human drops, 
Go thou and fetch the god-boy from the tomb, 
Or else I plunge it to the blood-red hilt 
In thy fair breast ! 

Dana-. Strike, strike ! but spare my son! 

lie "s noble. He is good. He "s every inch 
A king. And he is thy own flesh and blood ! 

King. The dagger rises, and 't will fall as fatal, 
If thou durst hesitate a jot! Go, go! 

Dance. I go. But plunge the dagger as thou wiliest, 



4S ACBTSIUS; KING OF AUG OS 

Only do .spare my god-boy, king of kinffs. 

King. Oh this be dirty business. Bur a king 's 
Aroused. Fell murder '11 be the consummation. 
Ha! art as spry as fencer in the ring! 

Dana\ Here 's Perseus, thy own real flesh and biood. 

King. Let go his hand. Come here, thou child of earth 
And heaven. 

Dana'. But spare him. He 's my only child. 

King. Back, back ! I say. The gods have said this Perseus 
Will kill me if he live. 

Dana-. But, parent, king, 

No blood of mine could do such act. He 's pure. 
Release him, and we 'il flee to uttermost 
Parts of the farthest kingdoms. And we 'II ne'er 
Return. 

Perseus. Mamma, he hurts me. 

King. Curse the child. 

Dance. On bended knee 1 do heseech thee, spare! 

King. Spare? Yea, I will! I 'II spare thee both, and such 
A wedding ride as bride ne'er had before, 
I Ml guarantee. Ho, Waldruff, art thou deaf? 

[Rings a call bell. 

Waldruff. Here am I. 

King. Now be nimble as an antelope, 
And with stout hands to'aid thee, fetch that colter, 
That great old coffin-chest. And be thou quick 
As Jove's tiire thunderbolts. For but a hair t 
Suspends the throne of Argolis. Go, slave. 

Waldruff. I do thy bidding. 1 'm gray in thv services. 

[Ex Waldruff. 

King. A droughty lover, husband, this old Zeus, 
To leave thee in thy brazen tomb. No kindness. 
No wedding tour. O wicked, foolish girl ! 
Bur. love! It was ambitious. It would wed 
A god. A thing of earth and sky. A coward! 
Sirh. Dame, he 's a ma'n of all fair women. 
She, Themis, is his wife. Eurynome, 
Fair Ceres and Dione. Dark Latona; 
And fairest Juno, his one lawful wife. 
He broke the marriage vows of pure Alcmena, 
Antiope did flee before his love; 
He stole the wifely Leda as a swan ; 
^Egina was bespoiled by such as he; 
He ruined lo with his blasphemous love; 
He violated fair Callisto, pure; 
Europa, gathering flowers along the seashore, 
Was ravished by this sensual old villain ! 
And thou didst wed a god, a very god ! 

Dance. Yet take me back. And else, O spare my boy ! 

King. Soon, soon, oh royal lady! Ho, old Waldruff, 
And dauntless three, thou bear'st the chest, the coffer. 

Waldruff. And 't is heavy as three giants might lug. 

Dame. O father ! Wise reputed king of Argos — 

King. Now! Off the cover! Ah, 'tis well. A tomb 
Of wood ! Now force the fortieth wife of Zeus 



ACRI8IUS, KING OF ARGOS 49 

Beneath the lid! 
Perseus. O mamma, mamma, I — 

Hume. Oh good my child, my Perse darling, I — 

King. Dost crowd her in? Ha, ha, 'tis so. Now, child, * 
Thou youngling rival to a king, hie in. 

Perseus. Yes, for mamma calls uie. 

Waldruff. She 's in. He 's in. The cover 's down. 

King. Thy work's well done. The sea shall drown their cries. 
Now lock the cover. Drive a hundred nails. 
Oh! wicked men and lusty workers, there, 
'Tis done! Their smothered cries are fainter, fainter. 
Now Waldruff. Harduff, Scarduff. and old Oarduff, 
Bear forth the cotter. There! And quick, quick, quick! 
And hurl the coffer, mother, child and all. 
Into the sea. H a ! There they float ! To sink? 
To rise? To die? To live? Let time decide. 

Waldruff. They sink, they sink! 

Harduff. O hear them scream. 

Scarduff. A saltv grave. 

Cm-duff. Oh pity, pity ! [Ex. all four.. 

King. Get hence. They sink, they sink! O hear tliem scream! 
A salty grave. Oh pity, pity. Bah! 
And let them sink. A kingdom 's thus redeemed. 
And foolish old Acrisius holds the throne! 
Ha! Foolish! Imbecile! In dotage! Weak! 

[Thunder and lightning. 
A storm at sea. The thunderbolts of Zeus 
Have struck the earth. Great Jove! The lightning. I — 

[Receives a shock and falls. 
Curtain falls. 

ACT V. 

SCENE I. 

The island of Seriphus. Dictys, a fisherman. 

Dictys. Was never such a fisherman as I? 
For by the gills of all the tish e'er caught, 
I've had my day with rod and line and spear; 
And 't is no fisher's story when I sa} r , 
I 've beat the world at fishing. An' I 've caught 'em 
In rudest manner. With the blanket so, 
And with the spears. With many a wiery trick, 
I lying on the slimy rocks. With sheepskin, 
And well-made leister, spurious and illegal, 
I 've caught 'em. All is fair in love and war, 
And so in fishing. Fish soliloquies 
Are rare, but here 's soliloquy that 's fishy. 
I 've captured salmon, an' have swapp< d 'em too, 
For hunter's meat, as I 'd no art with guns. 
An' here 's the list: *Tis salmon, cod and soles, 
With turbot, maok'rel, shad and green old lobsters, 
An' pearly oysters bright as ladies' eyes. 
I 'v« caught 'em too with nets. I "ve fished for haddock, 
And cod and ling and hake, the aldermanic 
Turbot, and valued sole. Upon my soul 



50 ACRisrus, xixa of Ann os 

Have 1. And eels that wriggle as they fry. 

Crustacean crabs have known old Dietys's art. 

I 've dredged, I 've dived. I've snared, I 've baited 'era; 

I *ve fished through spawning seasons, an eye on 

The law. Gray "cadgers oft have hawked my catch. 

.Sardines I 've scooped. In lake- and ponds and rivers 

I 've dropped my hook. I 've fished from boat ana shore, 

From log and plank. For Mediterranean tunnies. 

Anchovies, and raue eels at mouth of t*o. 

And shad, egad! With silver, spnrkling scales; 

But ne'er a whale caught I. though once a sturgeon 

Near gobbled me. Some fishes" snouts are short. 

Prolonged, abbreviated. Fi-hes' teeth 

Are rootless, fastened to the bones instead. 

Some fish arc toothless like to brother Dictys. 

But, out upon me tor a parasitic 

Fish-louse, what do 1 see? Is 'r whale or dolphin? 

Or Jonah's stranded whale? or kraken fabled? 

But ne'er did sea have r-uch a fish. T is shaped 

Like box or eedarn coffer, and hast easy. 

Lumbering untish-like gait. My bait 's for infants 

Not monsters. 'T would require a cow for bait. 

But h e now, Dictys, throw thy welded nets, 

Anil haul as thou wasi Heicules with twelve 

Hard labors to perform. Now Sea! Seriphus! 

Behold I he wonder of the world. A hox-hVh ! 

Who "11 elassih ? By all the scales of fishdom, 

It needs an ox to draw thee forth. But, Dictys, 

Again! Dost pull? Let tackle snap and cordage 

Heave, heave away. 'T IS done! Now .-lands a hero 

Ihat Feiuiatl' shalt emblazon in old brass. 

By all the anglers dead, what heard I? Box-fish, 

W ith second donah in its wooden entrails, 

Has sailed from ports unknown, and now is stranded 

On island of Seriphus. Were I coward 

Then had I tied; for sure as fish do swim, 

1 hear a human voice within this fish, 

And "t is a mother's voice, for it does say : 

There, perse, wipe thy tears, thy mother 's with thee; 

And what is stronger than a mother, Perse? 

By all my tackle and old fish-lies told, 

1 'II pierce ilie belly of this wooden fish, 

And though his bowels hold a wooden horse 

With armed men, I '11 have them forth instanter. 

A hundred nails! But here 's my rusty claw-bar. 

As long a- bait would wait for bite, wait thou, 

O wondrous occupants of such a fish 

As this, and Dictys' arm shall let thee out. 

A pry, a twist, a yank, a lurch and fish's 

Back is off. But Jove and greater Hercules, 

What do I see? A mother and her child! 

Come forth. "T is Dictys, island of Seriphus. [They appear. 

But thou art lovely as a mermaid queen, 

Thou ait a queen, and gasping boy has lines 

Of kingly sjreatness. Wicked stars, art dying? 



ACBISIUS, KINCTOF'AItGOS .77 

Dance. Not dying' nor prepared to die, but smothered. 
I gasp for breath. I pant for want of air, 
And little Perse 's wellnigh stifled. Sir — 

Dictys. But sit thee down upon this rude old sone, 
The boy upon thy knee, and once thou *st tasted 
This aged wine, I "II li-t thy hapless story. 
Some fishers hold the adage that old rum 
Doth make the fish to bite, but I prefer 
New wine. And new. 'cause ne'er 'd grow old with me. 
The wine has brought new lustre to thy cheek, 
And were I kingly as thy kingly son, 
I 'd make essay to have such queen my wife. 

Dance. Wife? Wife? O do not mention. Wife, wife, wife! 
May all good angels now abhor me for it, 
That I 'in a wife, that e'er 1 dreamed of lover. 

Dictys. I 'm only Dictys. Though my brother 's king, 
I dare delight in fishing. But for this 
The island of Seriphus had not known thee; 
For had not 1 so fished thee out, to sea 
Thou sure hadst gone, to perish in thy tomb. 
And been another devil-fish to sailors, 
The story ringing down the centuries 
Like Flying Dutchman, or a similar. 
But, tell thy story. Fishers fi>h in vain 
For latest bite when they do talk. 

Dance. My story? 

And then thou art my friend? 

Dictys. Thy watery friend, 

And with the fame of catching such a fish, 
That other fishers '11 die in fish-like envy. 

Dana-. The salt sea breeze dost so renew my life. 
That long I 'd sit her* 1 on the thundering shore 
And hear the cannonade of mighty waters. 
But tell me first if this be earth or heaven. 

Dictys. 'Tis not the earth, good hap, but just a part. 
It is the little island of Seriphus, 
And Polydectes, my one brother 's king. 
But 't is a haven in a roaring sea. 

Dame. Then still I "in in a kingdom? 

Dictys. Yes, dear lady. 

Dance. Then, sir, how far is it beyond all kingdoms? 

Dictys. Only the fish may know. For since a babe, 
I 've heard of kings and kingdoms. Why dost ask? 

Dana;. Because I am the daughter of the king 
Of Argolis. And I 'm so tired of thrones, 
1 'd enter 'gan this cedarn coffin, and 
Say : Waves, How on forever with thy human 
Freight, ay ! forever, if thou dost not come 
To a republic. 

Dictys. A republic? 1— 

Dance. Hast never heard of such? But take me hence. 
1 'm fresh with sharp remembrance of a brazen 
Tomb. And, e'en now, I feel as newly risen 
From some old coffin. Yet 1 thank thee, Dictys, 
For my late liberation from the sea. 



52 ACBISirs. KING OF ABGOS 

Dictys. The honor 'a more than medal or reward. 

Dance. But ere thou tak'st me hence, write out these words, 
And tack them on the coffer : This is would-be 
Coffin of King Acrisius's only daughter, 
Where she was forced by him, and put to sea 
At mercy of the waves and storms, to perish, 
But rescued by the noble Dictys, who 
Dost stand between a daughter and a king. 
The cedarn tomb is empty, but should king 
Acrisius ever hap to find it, let 
Him, king! dare enter as his daughter Dame, 
And held by hundred nails, set out to sea 
On voyage last to find the peace he lacketh, 
Which only 's found within this sepulchre. 
Now, hast thou writ it, Dictys? 

Dictys. Ay, and plain. 

Dana-. Now, Dictys, tack it on the cedarn coffer, 
And push it out to sea. 

Dicta*. T is done, fair lady, 

And it dost float as though a thing of life, 
Though life to it is not. And may the king. 
Thy father, find it on his kingdom's shore, 
And so astounded at its emptiness, 
That, wild with rage and passion, he will enter, 
And die at sea. a martyr to ambition. 

Dance. Well said, and nobly, and auspicious time 
Do make thee king of island of Seriphus. 

Dictys. If this should hap, "t would be a boon to Dictys. 
But, come, lady of all loveliness! 
And thee and thy dear child shalt find a royal 
Ilospitalitv at thy fisherman friend's house. [Ex. Dictys. 

Danas. We follow thee, friend Dictys, our true friend, 
The which I had notfound though in a kingdom. 

[_Ex. Dance and Perseus. 

SCENE II. 

Polydectes at Dictys's house, twelve years having elapsed. 

Polydectes. Do honest men dare live within our realm? 

Dictys. Unless the kingdom 's changed inside the year. 

Polydectes. Did wonders ever happen on our island? 

Dictys. I 've known me many wonders in my day. 

Polydectes. Canst thou recite to me some of these wonders? 

Dictys. Conzaclo's quoit-work, sure, is full of wonder. 

Polydectes. And canst thou cite another, brother Dictys? 

Dictys. I think my brother as a king "s a wonder. 

Polydectes. But I've a wonder more to me than thine. 

Dictys. A king should lead his subjects in a story. 

Polydectes. 1 spoke of honest men. I spoke of wonders. 
But prithee listen to a wonder-story. 
Thou hast a memory, Dictys, like a fish, 
And be the story of aquatic box fish, 
Thou 'It sure remember. Twelve straight years as time 
Dost trace it, came a man to fish. His nets 
Drew in a fish of box-like shape. Dost stare? 

Dictys. 1 stare, as never fish had shape of box. 



ACBISIUS, KING OF ABGOS 53 

Polydectes. Within this fish's belly was a woman. 

Dictys. Of all fish stories this dost beat old Jonah. 

Polydectes. And with this woman was a lad of four. 

Dictys. Then brother Polydectes wrote the Bible, 
For this no less a wonder than thy fi*h. 

Polydectes. This fisherman was only such by nature; 
By training he developed to a villain, 
Sitli lie did take the mermaid and her son 
To quiet cottage bordering on the sea; 
And twelve long years he kept them in concealment. 
Until this lad 's a youth of sixteen years. 
With fame beyond the island of Seriphus. 

Dictys. Thy wonder-story 'a kingly, but 't is fish3 r . 

Polydectes. I hear this boy has prowess, skill, renown. 

Dictys. The gossips peddied that ere I was forty. 

Polydectes. But gossips are not known to reigning kings; 
They find association with the herd. 
And so, 't was only yestereve that 1 
Did hear this well-kept secret, and in hearing 
If, I became so woman curious that 
I ask thee: Is my wonder-story true? 

Dictys. Excuse me king! 1 left the pot a-boiling. 
And all my bellied fishes will boil out. [Ex. Dicty*. 

Polydectes. That varlet ne'er 'II return. But such a king 
As I, will put his nose about, and smell 
This fine old secret out. I hear that Dictys 
Is mixed in the matter. If 't is so, 
I 'II put him to the tower where death-fish bite. 

[Ex. Polydectes. 

Re-enter Dictys. 

Dictys. It se^ms but yesterday, this mermaid story: 
And yet she, Danae's older, and the lad 
Is verging seventeen. Abroad, he "s famous, 
And he 's so srreat 'tis creeping to our kingdom. 
And last, to open ears of Polydectes. 
Willi winged discus Perseus is master. 
But, Polydectes, he has nosed me out. 
Evasion 's but poor make-shift, and a lie 
Will soon come back. I 'II hurry forth and study 
l T p kingly villainies, evasions, tricks, 
And all concatenations of a kingdom; 
For 1 may yet be king of old Seriphus. [Ex. Dictys. 

SCENE III. 

Polydectes in his palace. 

Polydectes. With oft-reputed wisdom have I reigned 
Over Seriphus; and till now, no man, 
< ourtier or noble, has e'er dared deceive me. 
And yet the hour is come. My brother Dictys 
Has kept in close concealment for long years, 
() Mich a be::uty of a woman that 
The very gods had wooed her. Dozen years 
Agone, this lubberly fisher brother, Dictys, 
Did fish a cotter from the sea, and lo! 
It held the first of womankind, in point 



:,4 ACRI.SIU8, KING OF AUH OS 

Of human loveliness. And such a lad 

Of strength and prowess, that my ear- do ring 

With his\ till now, concealed adventures. Sooth! 

I '11 hence to woo and win this daughter of 

A king. And Polyd^etes's wish is law. 

Keep on thy wonted course, O Throne ! for King 

Polydeetes goeth forth to seek a bride. 

To be the beauty-queen of this, his kingdom. [Ex. Polydeetes. 

SCENE IV. 

Dance at Dictys's house. 

Dance. And yet I live. But not in kingdom's anguish. 
Perse 's now grown a youth, with reputation 
( )f heroes. But, should Polydeetes find us. 
A second king will perish for ambition ; 
Since did he dare approach me, Perseus 
Would slay him on his throne! 

Eiiicr Dictys. 

Dictys. Ah, Dan.-e, queen, 

I do but call to tell thee of a journey 
I soon must take. So, guarded be in actions, 
As Polydeetes seeing thee, he'd sue 
For thy pure baud in marriage. And proud Dictys 
Would soon find kingly daggers at his heart. 

Dunn:. I "11 stand upon the citadel of judgment, 
And with love's astronomic eye so watch 
The stars and other heavenly bodies that 
The quick return of Dictys shalt find yet 
His Dame free, unhampered, and as grateful. 

Dictys. Then faretheevvell till suns do light my coming. 

[Ex. Dictys. 

Dtnite. A noble man. And yet I fear his absence 
\\ ill biccd me trouble. But is trouble part 
Of every maiden's life, if hot ambition 
Environ her. But Perse comes, my hero! 

Enter Perseus. 

Perseus. My mother, once again I 'in laureled. Next 
1 'II slay the Gorgon by the ocean stream, 
Medusa, Pluto, or the hundred handed. 

Dance. I know thou ha-t the prowess of the king 
Of sports. But, list, no man but finds his match. 
Come, sit beside me. Once I dared to hope 
To be the queen of Argo.is. But what 
Did hap? I found myself within a tomb 
Of brass, whence I was torn by cruel parent, 
And boldly thrust within a cedar coffer, 
You, Perseus and 1, and hurled among 
The waves, to perish, but for worthy Dictys. 

Perseus. But you "re a woman, mother, I 'in a man. 

Dana . A noble boy, my Perse, not a man; 
But. be a man in all thy haps and hazards. 

Perseus. No mother' "II need to blush for deed of Perse. 
But mother Dan.e. I do kiss thee farewell. 
Since now 1 go to win another laurel. [Ex. Perseus. 

Daute. And may it be in worthiest ambition. 
<) could I feel the same old childhood safety 



A < 'BIS 1 1 'S. KINO O F ABGO S 

That I did feel when as a girl I played 
About the throne of Argolis, and Delia 
Did watch me with a holy mother's eye. 
Who comes? My premonitions weie not vain. 
Are all kings' daughters fated thus as I? 

Enter Polydeetes. 

Polydectes. With hat in hand and pliant knee, O lady, 
Fairer than midnight stars, I come to thee 
Uuushered and alone, with king's attendance. 
And gold accoutred retinue uncalled, 
Sith beauty draws nie, kin"; of old Seriphus. 
Wilt hear my plea without regalia? Speak! 

Dance. I rise as always in the presence of 
A king. But, Polydectes, I am married. 

Polydectes. Such beauty, queen! should have a hundred lords. 
I am a king; but fear me not. 1 love thee! 

Dana-. O gracious heaven ! am I cursed with beauty? 
Yet once i thanked my glass that told me I 
Was beautiful. But now 1 must bewail it. 

Polydectes. But hear me, Dictys has a meagre home. 
W bile I have palace, hall and kingdom! Gold, 
And diamond-, precious stones, with hundred servants 
To do my bidding. Come, and thou shalt queen 
I'c over all my kingdom. Answer, queen ! 

Dance. But, Polydectes, I'm the wife of Zeus. 

Polydectes. Instead of these tame scenes and pastoral pictures, 
Thou shalt behold the brasses of old Felldaff; 
The sculpture-work of Greece's greatest masters: 
The coronation of old kings by master 
Painters, and battle pictures with great kina:s 
As heroes in the vanguard of the tight. 
I durst approach thee. Wilt thou be my wife? 

Enter Perseus suddenly. 

Perseus. No! Polydectes, king and miscreant! 

Dona'. May heaven now stand between this king and man ! 

Perseus. Or else a coward king shall die! 

Dance. O Perse ! 

Polydectes. Ho. ho! And little roosters 'gin to crow. 
Young man, at slightest beck, a thousand guards 
Would swarm about thee! 

Perseus. Quicker thin my dagger'/ 

See, coward king! if sparkles for thy blood! 
* T will drink it ! There is brother Dictys's door; 
Hence, paltry knave and spurious king, or death 
Shalt i>c tiiy penalty ! 

Polydectes. Thou 'It rue this hour. 

Danoe. Oh, Perse, hold! A king's all powerful. 

Perseus. Go, king! My ringer points the coward's way. 

Polydectes. I go, but fatal be the hour when I 
Return; for sure as Polydectes reigneth, 
I '11 banish thee from island of Seriphus; 
And wed thy lovely mother ere the moon 
Is in her second quarter. Faretheewell ! [Ex. Polydectes. 

Dance. Perse, Perse! () what hast thou done? 

Perseus. Defied a king because I am a man ! 



:><■> .\rnrs/rs, king of abgos 

And you. my mother! 

Danas. I admire a hero; 

But kings are walled by such ;i greatness that 
Only a kins; can reach them. Perse, hence. 
Quick dec the kingdom, as thy life is more 
Than tame or costly reputation. Go! 

Perseus'. No kini>' shall hurl me from his kingdom. I, 
Tomorrow, go to kingly banquet. 

Do in e. Whose? 

Perseus. King Polydectes's. Less than kings are heard. 
This villain monarch on the coming morrow. 
Will have a splendid race, gold chariots; 
For lie 's the suitor to Asterope, 
Daughter of old OEnoraaus, the king 
Of Pisa, whose fair hand is to reward 
The victor. I "m to be 'mong the contestants. 

Dance. But, Polydectes? lie will slay thee, Perse. 

Perseus. Then do I die an honored death, a kingly. 

Dmite. Who says, 'twere better living coward than 
Dead hero? 

Perseus. Nothing but a coward ! Farewell. \Ex. Perseus. 

Dmite I 'm sick and trembling at the thought. But I, 
Dame, the daughter of a king, and heiress 
Unto a throne, do vow to be among 

The crowd to note what hap befall my hero. \Ex. Dance. 

SCESE V. 

The chariot race. Crowds in attendance. 

Polydectes. All trumps he blown. All young men hearken. I. 
Polydectes, am a suitor for the hand 
Of tiippodamia. The contest's open 
To all young comers, athletes, clowns or kings. 
Mandamus of my courts was read today, 
And heard; and those that promised horses, brought them. 
Each person has complied save Perseus. 
What will this hero fetch as his donation'? 
As his accretion to the manly sports'? 

Dtiine. half concealed in u nook. 

Dunte. I see a vast assemblage. .Maids and queens, 
Courtiers and lords, men, women and their children. 
But not a man among them hast the feature, 
The valor of my Pei\«e. He "s a king 
Without the crown. But I fear me death 
Dosl mark him. No fair play, for Polydectes 
Hast anger in his looks, his eye a meaning 
Wicked and fell. But open is the day, 
With glowing splendor of old Sol to stay 
The wicked hand of murder. For Latona, 
Blackest night, is foul mother of most deeds 
That soil and stain with blood resplendent earth. 
The king is speaking. 'T is a malediction. 

Polydectes. It is not oft a king in person ushers 
In games and sports and recreations. But 
Fame's such to me, and agonistic labors, 
And such my fiesh delight in honest hazards 
Of men of nerve and fibre, strength and prowess, 



ACRISIUS, KING OF AEG OS 57 

I hurl my kingly mantle from the form 

It graces, and as man among my men. 

My populace, my people, I do enter 

In holiday-like splendors, graciously. 

Gladiatorial sports, and games and contest-. 

Athletic haps and manhood's high endeavors, 

Coupled with offered prizes, do attract 

A mighty concourse, made of every hue, 

And shade and color, style and worth and valor, 

Especially if prize he lady's beauty. 

As beautful Asterope is prize, 

I. Polydeetes, now do enter lists 

Of tournament, to win this queen of beauty, 

If crowned kings be mightier than their subjects. 

Enter Dictys. 

Dictys. Ah ! Dame fair, what hap that takes thee here? 

Dance. For Perse. In the distance men are drawn 
As if for battle. But it will be bloodless, 
For 't is but an agonistic tournament, 
The prize, fair Hippodamia. The chariot 
Race. See! They start! O splendid age of song 
And valor, love and native greatness! [ 
A man and I had joined their manly sports. 

Diet;/*. But see! Thy Perse nears the goal. He'll win. 
Yet, heavens! the mad king rideth o'er him! See! 

Dance. 'T was but a kindly plot to kill my Perse. 
But yet he rises. He 's unharmed. But stop ! 
He 's seized The guards have pinioned him O quick! 

Dictys. The guards have ta'en him, and the crowd doth follow. 

Dance Quick, quick! Let 'a to the trouble ere the king- 
Do slay him, as he lately threatened, Dictys! 

Dictys. Then follow, for a king in wrath is coward. 

[Ex. Dana- and Dictys. 
SCENE VI. 

Perseus in prison. 

Perseus. O prison bars 1 stand alone with thee, 
And as I look upon the gay plateau, 
Now trodden by the kingly sports, I sec 
The plot. 'T was thus to murder me in jest, 
It failing, heavy hands were laid upon me, 
And under curt pretense, they shackled me. 
But, rusty bars and odors foul, my mother "II 
Rescue me, and before the dawning hours. 
For woman's mind once made 't will never rest 
Till satisfied. And Dictys is her friend. [^1 scraping noise. 

That sound? The rustv key that locked me here? 
Ah, yes. For swings the door, and grimly jailor — 
Ho. Dictys! It is you? The king will flail thee. 

Dictys. I have no hap forking or subject. Come! 
Thy mother's wit lias given ihee thy freedom. 
Sbc bribed the jailor with a kiss. But come. 

Perseus. I follow thee, though much I fear thy safety. 

Dictys. My brother is the king, but I 've the wit. 
Perseus. Then led by wit we'll bid the king farewell. 

[Ex. Perseus and Dictys. 



58 A< ft/sirs. KING OF ARGOS 

Enter Polydectes. 

Polydectes. The fledgling's caged! Tomo'row will I say: 
Young hero, thou shalt have thy liberty 
If thou wilt promise me thy mother's hand. 
I la. ha, I "II hence this moment and make truce 
With Dana 1 . She "s a jewel from a crown! 
A few short steps and she "II delight my eyes! 
A few short hours and she "11 become ray wife! [Ex. Polydectes. 

SCENE VII. 

At Dictys's house. Dictys, Perseus "ml Dance. 

Dance. <> noble Dictys, thou hast rescued him. 
A thousand benedictions on thy head. 

Dictys. "V was woman's wit. 

Dance. And yet thou hast my thanks, 

lint you, my Perseus, hence. The moments fly. 

Perseus. But whence ? 

Dance. O any where "from out this kingdom. 

Perseus. To /Ethiopia? 

Dance. Ay, so 't be not here. 

Dictys. And hurry, hurry! Guards will soon be on us. 

Perseus. Adieu then, mother, and adieu then, Dictys, 
For I will hence and be an .Ethiope. [Ex. Perseus. 

Dance. And God give speed and life's most prosperous journey. 

Dictys. And do thou follow on the wings of Thea ; 
For even now I fear my brother's presence. [Heavy step*. 

Dance. That sound! I hear a human footstep. I — 

Enter Polydectes unannounced. 

Polydectes. Beauty has caused this seeming trespass. But, 
Thy son "s incarcerated. Thus I hurry. 
A word from thee and he is free as love. 

Dance. 'Tis sudden. 

Polydectes. Love is best if sudden. Speak! 

A word from thee and Perseus is free. 

Dana'. I 'II answer on the morrow, Polydectes. 

Dictys. And I bear witness to the verbal compact. 

Polydectes. Then on the morrow thou art mine, and Perse 
Has liberty. Best in peace, and faretheewell. [Ex. Polydectes. 

Dictijx. Now hie thee fast, and ere the morrow's dawn, 
A hundred miles shall span between ye. Go! 

Dance. And leave my gratitude? for 't is my all. 

Dictys. Yes. Hurry, as the king may yet return. 

Dana'. If lie should find my Perse gone. Farewell. [Ex. Dance 

Dict'js. Now also will I flee, else will the king 
Forget our kinship, and the hangman know me. [Ex. Dictys. 

SCENE VIII. 

Perseus in .Ethi<>i>in. 

Perseus. And yet I live, O dastard king! and for 
Thy treachery thou shalt, thug! be dethroned, 
And Dictys placed upon thy jewelled seat, 
With glittering crown and sceptre gilded rare; 
Sit h but for Dictys and my queenly mother. 
This old Seriphus king had murdered me. 
But this is .Ethiopia. And this 



ACRISIUS, KING OF ARGOB 59 

The raging sea. How have I wandered on, 
And on. O Sea! thou hast a loneliness 
That sickens human hearts. Imperial, 
Almighty, thou dost dare approach of man. 

let me leap among thy cold salt waves 
And bid farewell to man's ambition, lint — 
By all the grandeur of old Neptune, what, 
>\ n.it canst I avf^: An overhanging rock! 
And chained to it 's a lovely human woman. 
She's beauty's self. maiden, I do love thee! 
Thou art more beautiful than courtly Venus. 
But, dare to blush. I 've come to rescue thee, 
And make thee, lady, my most beauteous wife. 

Andromeda. <> Perseus, and a king among all men, 

1 'm daughter of most cruel Cepheus, 

And Cassiopea. And they 've chained me here, 
Perse, to perish by a horrid monster. 

Perseus. Then strike I off the chains that bind thee, lady, 
And forth we 'II go to make a wedding. Come. 

Andromeda. I '11 love the man that dares to rescue me. 

Perseus. And wed him ere the sun do cross the hills r 

Andromeda. For thou hast saved me from a monstrous death. 

Perseus. Then come, and Cupid fair shalt lead us on. 

[Ex. Andromeda and Perseus. 

SCENE IX. 

Argolis. In the king's palace. 

King. Messengers do tell me of approaching trouble; 
Cold Rumor bruiteth that my child i^ rescued; 
Gossips announce she is arrived in Argos, 
With Perseus, my grandson and his wife, 
And even now that they are at my gates. 
cursed be ambition of old kings! 
Had I as king been once content, how less 
Than death had been my great career. But now, 
O Felldaff! Now, O Argolis! And now, 

Delia ! I must bid a last farewell 

To home, to kingdom, and my high ambitions. 
And hence to fair Larissa, there to die 
Dethroned and ciownless. but a mould of clay. 
And yet a king's divinity 's around him. 

1 'in now too old to note the hap of states; 
I "m now too tar advanced to other worlds 
To care for mortal life or furtherance 

Of kingly projects and a king's ambitions. 

How hitter is the retrospect ! And time 

W ill not conceal it. I "ve the halting step, 

The a'nled eye, the trembling hand, the voice 

That quavers, squeaks and breaks. The sunken cheek, 

The flabby skin, the frosty hand of age. 

But as J sit in toothless emptiness, 

A wreck, a cordage, spar, a skeleton; 

The wonted tires retui n at thoughts of other 

Times, years and days. And my old blood doth leap 

At reminiscence of the hour that made 



SO act; /sirs. KING of Ann os 

Me king, the crowned king of Argolis. 

1 see the great crowds now. The heralds, lords ; 

The courtiers, kings; the retinue, the rabble; 

Court ladies, queens; the dabsters, knights, the soldiers; 

The infantry, the military, horses; 

Enthusiasm, loud applause; the banners, 

The flags, the bugles, horns and noisy trumpets; 

The courtly dresses, line regalias; noise, 

And din. The music. And the one great man 

Of all. Acrisius, there encrowned king, 

The king of kings of all the kings of Argos, 

The cause of all this great ado, the one 

To rise o'er all and sway the destinies 

Of a great kingdom. Never such a king. 

Hut having much I waived more. Ambition 

Possessed me. I "d be father of a son 

To reign in hour of my relapse. But. heavens. 

The talc is one to make a murderer weep ! 

Once greatest king with splendid form, physique, 

Now humbled in the dust and forced to wander 

Nameless and lone across the earth, to die 

At last by him who 's near in blood, my son, 

Perseus, my noted grandson. But. adieu, 

queenly Delia! And adieu, Argos! 
For Thessaly shaltbe my crown less home, 
Till death do take me to that other world 
Where kings ami queens and high ambitions are 
No part Of that harmonious existence. 

Now hence to Thessaly from kingly cares. [Ex. Acrisius. 

SCENE X. 

Perseus, Dance and Andromeda at Argos. 

Dance. At last I'm in the home that cradled me; 
But mother clear is dead, an father's now 
In Thessaly. 

Andromeda. O do not weep, sweet Danse, 
All life in hall or hut has ups and downs. 

Perseus. And he lias fled for fear the oracle 
Of Phoebus this dire hour shalt come to pass. 
But mine 's a life of ventures, haps and falls, 
So, faretheewell, my wife and hapless mother, 
For soon 1 go to old Larissa, there 
To take a part in sombre sports, the funeral 
(Tames held in honor of the king of far 
Larissa. And 't will be my last contention. 

Dance. And so I hope. 

Andromeda. And I, Andromeda. 

Perseus. Since now I'm weddi d to the fairest maid, 

1 needs must be in home al tendance to 

Help rear thelittle Perses yet to be. [Ex. Perseus. 

Dana\ A noble lad, but 1 do fear his danger. 

Andromeda. Aye, noble. And his dangers are not seemless, 
For be does cross his way to find them. But, 
Let Perse have his youth. Old age will find him 
Sooner than wife or mother 'II dare to hazard. 



ACBISIUS, KING OF AEG OS 61 

Dance. E'en so. I 'd ever have him but a boy ; 
And I, myself, would give my all for youth. 
For happy childhood days that once 1 passed 
In gambols round the throne of my king father. 

Andromeda. And I do join thee in thy wishes. Aye! 
And had I power of restitution, youth 
Should be thy everlasting benediction, 
And beauty rare should reign forevermore. 

Dance. But let us hence. A husband *s on his way 
Of beauty's self, and son of queenly mother 
In younger days ere old ambition came; 
Where once was animation and eclat, 
And music, song and dance and courtly glee, 
Now 's gaping horrors, woes and old disturbance. 
But follow me. The hollow echoes of 
This grand old home do fill me with a dread. 

[Ex. Dance and Andromeda. 

SCENE XI. 

Larissa. Perseus at the tourney. 

Perseus. I 've journeyed many miles as fate pursued me. 
Were I to live my life again, ambition 
Had little part. For such the tear and wear 
And sad dispoilment of the mind and body, 
That fame and name are little recompense. 
But as the hero of a hundred tourneys, 
I needs must enter lists as last grand act 
To close the public drama of my life. 
But crowds do gather. 'T is a great king's day. 
But great or small, 't is last to Danaa's hero. 

Enter herald. 

Herald. Who'll pitch the discus with Larissa's king, 
The king of quoits, the quoits of stone or brass? 
Does .-uch a man dare venture on his laurels? 

Perseus. I 've hied from distant Argolis this day 
To throw the discus with the king of quoits, 
And fates decree ine winner or a loser. 
Now stand aside, this discus has been known 
To kill. 

Soldier. Eight well thou 'st spoken. It may kill. 

Herald. Stand back till old Gonzado does his work. 

Gonzado. There *s one, and two, and three, and four, and five. 

Soldier. The goal is hit as sure as I 'm a soldier. 

Herald. And cannot be outmatched by churl or clown. 

Perseus. Gonzado flung the discus like a god. 

Gonzado. Now let the famed hero of the world, 
Eenowned and laureled Perseus, take hand. 

Herald. And prove the soldier's loud-mouthed prophecy. 

Soldier. And here 's a ciown I 'm still a seer and prophet. 

Perseus. There 's one, and two, and three, and four, and five. 

Herald. Well done! But who that falls? An old man 's hurt! 

Gonzado. O fatal hap at such a time as this; 
Thp fates come in to mar our public bliss. 

Soldier. The man is ninety if a ten-hour day, 
And looks a noble king in every way. 



62 A CPISI US, KING OF AUG OS 

Perseus. Stand back ! T is old Acrisius, once the greatest 
King of the kingdom of dead Argolis; 
And 'f is my grandfather ! Fetch water, wine. 
Acrisius, rest thy head upon my knee. 

King. The oracle! The oracle of Phoebus 
Apollo ! It has come to pass ! I 'm dying ! 

Perseus. Here, wine! Do taste it, king! It will restore thee. 

King. The fates are "gin me. Naught can aid me now. 
But see! A vision passes o'er me. I 
Am youthful as thyself. A wedding passes. 
The King of Argolis is married. He 
Has wed the daughter of the noblest house 
Of Athens. Delia and Acrisius reign 
Till Dana? 's born to decorate the throne. 
The years slip in the volumed vault of time. 
The king becomes ambitious in his age. 
He 'd have a son to reign at his demise ; 
But look! A great throne rises! Tis Apollo's! 
The king of Argos stands before his godship. 
The great god speaks. Thou shalt not have a son, 
But thy own daughter shalt give birth to one, 
And by whose hand, O King! thou shalt be slain! 
And so I dared to hatch a plot to kill 
This son, this Perseus; but instead, the boy 
Has killed tin- vagrant king! For thou art Perse; 
Sith, tell me this before I die, that I 
May ask thee pardon and forgiveness. Look, 
Look in my eye. 'Tis thee! T is Danne's eye! 
O Perse! wilt forgive me? And ray Danae, 
And Delia ; and O Throne of Argolis! 
Wilt thou forgive a dying kin"? 'Tis death! 
He comes alike to king* and queens. O Perse ! — 
Danae !— Adelia !— Argolis !— 1— die— 
For — thee ! 

Perseus. The King of Argolis is dead ! 
Curtain falls. 




So^nete. 



SOXNETS G5 

I LOVE YOU. 



I love you in the fern, the flower, the tree, 
In meadow, vale, and pasture trod of kine, 
In fragrant woods and fields; and with the Nine 

Aye love to wander by the sounding sea, 

Find curious sh"ll enfashioned fairily, 
That seems a little reverential sign 
On earth, of that far land we call divine, 

Where time will never end, and love is free. 

And watch the little sandsteps fade away 
Before encroaching ocean; wander slow 
Al nig the booming shore; while ships afar, 

Like whife-winged birds, fly on their tiackless way, 
Or some near skiff that staggers to and fro, 
And pales away at last like faintest star. 



For, Poesy rare, you teach the beauty round, 
The beauty of the mountain or the field, 
"Places of nestling green," where wild flowers yield 

Their lush perfume, and treetops arch around 

Some little Eden, where the joys abound 
That nature owns alone, and birdnotes pealed 
Sweet yesternight, and white-fringed daisies reeled 

In every wind that swept the fragrant ground. 

And night came down and lit the sky with stars, 
And shed her dew on many a dusty flower, 

And through the trees made little argent bars, 
That lent a beauty to the twilight hour; 

Till here, dear Poesy, I would stay with thee, 

"Neath heaven's constellated canopy! 



Sith loveliness is over all the land 

In dreams with thee. For bud and flower and bird, 

Neglected tulips, every zephyr heard 
In quiet nooks, ami waters on the sand 
By shelvy banks, the faroff mountains grand, 

And cloud-kist, every wind-tree's leafy word 

In mutual whisperings, each with each, till stirred 
To tine emotions, motionless I stand. 
The spell of poesy's o'er me, pure and fine, 

Translucent, idolized to life by me 
In revels with new beauties half divine, 

Till, like a god, I sit in revelry 
Unconscious, drunk with nature and her stores 
Of riches on her meads and shingly shores. 



ffff SOXXETS 



Where'er I turn, I 'm winy in delight 
With o'erabundant blandishments, now spread 
By nature, lavish, generous, till wed 

To wild wood beauties, red and blue and white, 

And yellow as a marigold, my sight 
Grows sated, and in visions' I am led 
To rainbow lands, where Love with starry head 

Beckons me on, enslaved like radiant wight. 

But on I go; I love Love's 'chanting chains 
Of gold ; a prisoner I (-are to be 

With Love the jailor. Rosy, laboring wains 
Of joys are with us, crowned with Rarity! 

And new delights, and maids in gossamer dress 

That dainty nudity would dare confess. 



And this is poesy ! She, dear nymph, to me 
Hast lent a thousand dainties'; flower and weed, 
And shrub and tree and twig, the rowen mead 

By river ways; and clothed with sanctity, 

And dewed divinity and glory. Bee 

And bird and butterfly, the brook, the reed 
Of swains; the kine on hills, majestic steed, 

In panorama crowd, O Poesy ! 

Silh, till I knew you, curved vert and spray, 
The miracle of loveliness in flowers, 

The tine astonishment of June and May, 
The ravishment of summer days and hours, 

Were sealed honk- to me: and Milton blind 

I wandered, half a man, and unrefined. 



But, Poesy! I will crown you. Laurel, vines, 
And twNted branches, deftly studied. I 
Will twine in happy combination. Sky 

And wold, and loses shall emit the signs 

Of loveliness in unimagined lines 
Of beauty classic in their purity, 
Human in all their dewy charity, 

But such a crown no other crown outshines! 

And so in heart adieu I wander back, 

Down, down to earth, to time, to humble home, 

To dredging things, communities, alack! 
Commercial dollars, business, ledger tome; 

But, gloria! in dreams I "II dream of thee, 

Translucent lady-bird of Poesy! 



SOXXETS 67 



PAUL HAYXE. 



Toiaj' my reminiscent song is sad, 

Fur he has gone where wild flowers deck the scene, 

Where Southern skies are bending sweet and glad, 

And nature twines above her evergreen, 

Or wreath of flowerage, for an ottering rare 

To you, dear Hayne! The woods are vocal now, 

The meadow and the field; but quiet there 

You hear no sound, nor where the florets how 

In beauty, do you wander as of yore 

With poet. heart ; for deatli has come at last! 

The. soft sweet music of that other Shore 

Fills all thy being now ! The wave went past 

That gulfed my crosiered Keats, and you, Paul Hayne, 

Left all your loved retreats, and crossed the main ! 



WHILE OTHERS WANDER. 



While others wander, pleasures come to me 
From simplest thing, the weed beside the way, 
The corner lilac, or the leafy spray; 

But others wander o'er the great wide sea, 

Climb highest mountains, travel far and free 
From elime to farthest clime, by night and day, 
Seeking for pleasures everywhere, and stray 

By nature's scented vale or bloomy lea. 

And still does pleasure go, is seldom found 
By those who seek ir most ; while I alone. 

With scanty purse, find pleasures all around 
Listening to nature in her solemn tone, 

Listening to nature in her gayest tune, 

In love with April, May and gaudy June. 

II. 

For 't is the mind that makes our pleasures here, 

Since tho' we gaze on some proud castle scene, 

Some old historic river calm, serene, 
Or some bard's tomb where men have dropt the tear, 
And tender memories cluster year by year, 

We find no beauty on the dappled green, 

In castle or the river's fulgent sheen, 
If death have ta'en the one we held most dear! 
To one is beauty in the daisied dell, 

To one is beauty in the tropic lands, 
To one is beauty where the snowdrops fell, 

To one is beauty where, with clasped hands, 
The contrite heart sends up the lowly prayer, 
Sith e'en the mind makes all the beauty there! 



SOXXETS 



in. 



To one is beauty by a marble grave, 
To one is beauty in a storm at sea, 
And one likes wine, and one likes revelry, 
And some are sated by tbe moaning wave 
Lapping tbe crinkly shores. A solemn stave 
By love's new coffin seemeth unto me 
A kind of dirge that beautifies. The lea. 
Desert mirage are lovely, seas that lave 
Deserted shores in sombre lands. To one 

Is beauty in a little child. To some 
Is beauty in a life that 'sjnst begun 

In honor, glory; bird-, and bees that bum 
To wayside n* twers. And one loves Tennysoi 
Another Keats; and so the t.ile doth run. 



Some wander in a forest, there alone 
In pure communion winning rare delights 
Ot mind ami eye. In cloudless, starry nights 

A poet is inspired. A broken stone. 

No lettered epigraph, a still Unknown! 

Is filled with quiet sadness. Marriage rites, 
And rosy brides, and hoary anchorites 

Are interesting, and the organ's tone. 

To me, like Whitman, beauty 's everywhere; 
A larger vision came to him, and time, 

And age, and aeons, Lincoln trumpet blare, 
And found communion in his rugged rhyme; 

But thro' our art for art's sake Whitman sleeps 

Half unremembered. God his memory keeps 1 



I love the canopy of God's great sky 
As Sol in silver-fringed clouds, at e'en 
Gins his descent in glory, and a scene 

Of grandest beauty leaves! Here let me lie 

With orange cloud and silver cloud on high, 
And burning colors in a shimmer sheen, 
Now yellow, red and white, turkois, and green, 

All touched to loveliness by mythic dye. 

For sunset in its miracle of hu p s, 
Now delicate, now faint, now rarely line, 

Xow Raphael-like in mixed tints and blues, 
Is grand, sublime, and hast the touch divine 

That makes the rosy beautiful! It awes, 

O'erwhelmeth me, the very thought dost pause! 



SOXXETS 69 



VI. 



St 111, others wander. In their discontent 
Go over seas: the Rhine, the Danube blue, 
Know strangers, srentleinen with pallid hue 

On elnek, a sunken eye. In foreign Kent, 

In Ireland, Wales we find them; but Content, 
Dear Satisfaction, these they never knew; 
Because, because. Ah! prophet, tell me true 

Why this may be. 'Tis 'yond a poet's stent. 

And yet I know me of a cottager, 
A vintner eking out a lowly lot; 

He hast no want, his blood has little stir; 
The world to him is in this hallowed spot! 

Cosmopolite, come back, come taste this peace, 

'Tis not in Rome nor uudefiled Greece! 



SING THE SONGS WE LOVE. 



Yes, sing the songs we love, O Poet rare ! 

And all Mie world will listen while you sing; 

And sing the beauty of the verdant spring, 
Where rarest perfumes scent the dewy air, 
And nature smiles in wreathlets green and fair, 

When bridal meadows laugh, and tendrils cling 

In wedded beauty, many a dainty thing 
Shines out in hidden beauty debonair. 
When birds have come with carol and with song, 

To make e'en glad the farms and fields around, 
When brooks sing back in gentler undersong, 

And artist nature paints the clovered ground, 
And all her tender forces soft conspire 
To make e'en lovelier their bright attire. 



And heed no fashion, sing from out the heart 
Of home sweet home, or anything you will; 
For yet is beauty in the sinuous rill, 

And beauty too in old historic art, 

Or anything that seems to be a part 

O' man'- best thought. The mournful whippoorwill 
I- sweet io -ome, the rumbling of the mill 

Til th >se that wander from the crowded mart. 

Burns sang a various song, and sang for all, 
The high and low on every foreign shore, 

The Scottish flower on mossy, cambered wall, 
The honeysuckle by some cottage door; 

And so, whate'er your song, sing natural ever, 

And time will hearken and forget thee never! 



70 SOXXETS 



Yea, sound the lyre, touch up the voiceless lute, 
And sing, O Poet! sing the songs we love, 
Like sky-lost lark, in purity as dove 

Of Eden, not like Menuvm statues mute 

In marble whiteness, but with voweled flute, 
And with a glory. Throw the gauntlet glove 
Of song alow, and 'gainst the stars above, 

And epitaph shall tell of thy repute! 

Yet sing! Divinity 's in every chord, 
For music had its birth among the stars; 

It toucheth with emotion every lord ; 
It hast a medley in its sounded bars, 

And to the home 's a beatific sprite 

From heaven ; so, sing your raptured songs tonight. 



The crimson-tipped flower in Burns's land; 
The yellow primrose by the Yarrow stream, 
Come back to me in many a twinkling dream, 

And with them lovely ladies in a band 

Of Gipsy beauties, fled from strident strand 
O'er ocean wave; but now a faroff gleam 
Of whited robes, that in my vision seem 

To glimmer o'er the Sea of Fairyland! 

For death has ta'en them. But their songs are ours; 
So sing your ditties, sing them sweet and low, 

Mellifluous, melodious, and flowers 

Will shower thee, and life will love thee mo, 

And when thy corse is mouldered, love of thee 

Will keep thy name in hallowed sanctity. 



v. 



Sith but for thee, the jrlory of the years 

Of other days, to us had been no more ; 

For once translated to that pearly Shore, 
The land of promise, where the mourners' tears 
Are wiped away, we had not heard with ears 

In rapt deliciousness, of soft Ladore, 

The beatific beauty of Lenore, 
The songs of troubadours and their compeers. 
Thy songs have prisoned fleeting loveliness 

In nature; held in garlands new to me, 
Evanishing enchantments, till I bless 

Thee aye, historian of the land and sea, 
For all the charmed beauties of thy verse, 
Sith life's inspired songs thou didst rehearse ! 



SONNETS 71 



VI. 



Beethovens have gin us music; half divine 
The Angeloes have wrought their marble art; 
Ami Guidoes, Raphaels, touched the human heart 

In painted splendors. But the poet's line 

Hast foam and sparkle of the beaded wine 
In ol I uncorked bottles. In the mart, 
In rural walks and ways, we find a part 

Of song that bringeth days of old lang syne. 

So, sing away, so, sing away, like bird 
On native bough, a skylark in the blue 

Of heaven, till every cadent string is stirred 
To melody, and crown will be to you 

A country's grateful gift, and fadeless aye, 

A fadeless crown for thy poetic lay ! 

THEY TOOK HER FROM ME. 



They took her from me, but I had my grief, 
A cheerless thing, perchance; it told my love, 
Ilowe'er, e'en plainer than the stars above, 

Or my leal heart when life was hers; for chief, 

To me, my grief at la«t. The bordered leaf 

Seemed rimmed with gold, while nestled there my dove, 
My love, my all in all to me. "Uelove, 

Relove in death!" I cried in unbelief. 

The wedding day was set, but death came there! 
Her face was sweet although her face was cold, 

For death had made her fair, and e'en more fair, 
And wreathed her brow with carcanef of gold: 

But yet I cherish my un wedded bride, 

Tho' best for both, I dare say, that she died ! 



And yet I feel a loneliness. To me 
The world is empty. Broad, and grand and wide 
The whole earth seems since my dissevered bride 

Dreamed off to glories o'er the siient Sea, 

In holy Paradise, in purity 
Of heart and soul, and with the vvaveless tide, 
In barque of loveliness, with God allied 

In love, and grew estranged from me, I gree. 

And now I am so lonely; dewy flowers 
Waft odors to me all in vain. The rose 

Potted by her. brings sadness to the hours 
Now weighted wiih my woe. In stately rows 

Her hollyhocks are nodding 'neath my eaves, 

Her bird no lilted song, he only grieves. 



70 80XXET8 



But grief is ours. It is our human lot 
To share this sombre woe. The impress tree, 
The willow in their mournful staves to me, 

Sing- only death and dissolution; not 

As in the yesternight in trysiing spot 
Of love and I, when she in melody 
Of heart and soul, sang out so f airily 

And sweet, that all the air to song was wrought. 

But now is sadness in these quiet nooks, 
And mournful dirges creep across my heart ; 

There is no song; 1 "m sad; the lilting brooks 
In funeral dirges moan, and slow uepart 

Across the fell and in the twinkling grass 

Are lost, and I *m alone, alas, alas ! 



O give me poppies for my drink ! for I 

Would drug my woe, and hasten after her 
Across the whited bulk of death; and stir 

The poison wisely, skh I 'd dare to die 

For love! And "neath the uureplying sky 
Inter me by her side; and plant the myrrh, 
The flowered agave o'er her wanderer, 

Myself! then dead to every love's reply. 

For living death is mine. And yet the world 
Is sated with the loveliness of girls; 

And yet they are not her ! Grim death has hurled 
HU poisoned shaft. Sweet queens and ermined earls, 

And maids of honor, come to comfort me; 

But nay ! My tears are mingling with the sea. 



VI. 

My tears are falling like a silent rain 
In quiet days. And yet I did not know 
My happiness until the venomed blow 

Ot death re-echoed on her frosted pane 

In that one niglit. the night so full of pain 
To me. And yet a tiddler scraped his bow- 
In revelry song, and glasses all a-row 

With winy lustre clinked in sweet refrain. 

O what is lite that I can be so sad! 
O what is death that I am comfortless ! 

Oh let me drain thy enp, Sir Galahad, 
Dare let me drain it in my love's distress; 

Nay, nay ! there is no solace. She alone 

('an soothe who sleeps 'neath her necropolis stone! 



SONJTETS 73 



THK MELODY OF BURNS. 



What viol sounds so faint and far and line? 

What harpstring echoes to ray listening ear? 

Why come these songs and love's unbidden tear? 
Is 't earthly muse or maid of heaven divine? 
Or can it be some soft ascended Nine? 

Or rapt musician by the sands o' Dee, 

In numbers of ethereal melody. 
That put such music in the poet's line? 
I may not tell ; and yet the numbers fall 

Like halcyon cymbals or the lutes of love, 
Like harpsichord beside some castle wall, 

Like starred musician from the realms above, 
Or birds or brooks in unadorned lays, 
Or Pandore gods of old Arcadia's days. 



I REVEL IN THE SONGS. 

I revel in the songs of other years, 
I glorv in the deeds of other days, 
I love old Scotland and her knightly lays, 

I love association with the peers 

Of English song; poor Catherine in tears; 
I love, like Lamb, the old historic ways, 
The pomp and pageantry of holidavs 

Bound moated castles and their sparkling meres. 

And yet I love my own dear native land, 
Her institutions free to all mankind; 

I know the old world seems more great and grand: 
But vet there's something here alone I rind: 

Since where the soul that makes the land of birth 

Second to any land upon the earth? 



JOHN KEATS. 

They called him poet of the gods, so wed 

Was he to mystic gods of ancient days; 

So, Bara Avis, in your mythic lays 
You *re poet of the poets ! And art led 
By them among the dear enlaureled dead, 

Among the tombs where rare Narcissus strays; 

For beauty loveth beauty Here go Mays, 
And Junes, and all the beauty sung or said. 
With holy reverence we may write their name, 

Our Swan of Avon, and our Bard of Hymns, 
For they are ours; we have this holy claim! 

And little halos with their vapor rims, 
Are round the names of Burns and Keats to me, 
Now glorified by immortality ! 



14 SONNETS 



A THANKLESS SONG. 

POET. 

"Dear leafless Muse, I have no theme today, 
1 have no song that such as thou eouldst sir.g; 
So, spread for me your bright bespangled wing, 
And murmur in my ear some Lusiad lay, 
And murmur sweet as Strombus shell might say, 
Or gurgling wavelet from a voiceless spring, 
Where immemorial grayest mosses cling, 
And earth's melodious bard still loves to stray." 

MUSE. 

"What mavis flying over Scottish Dees; 

What skylark in the blue above the world, 
Shall ask a tutor for his melodies? 

E'en fountains rare in winding song have purled; 
Go teach the nightingale in shady dell, 
And thou, dear bard, canst wiite a Christabel !" 



TO THE MOON. 

Sir Philip Sidney sang you. lovely moon; 
Yet you were less than Stella to his eye, 
Or bright particular star in vaulted sky, 

Or rosy blooming by some poet Doom, 

The migratory albatross or loon 
That soars above the wave. With eyes undry, 
He sang her loveliness. The flowers may die; — 

She lives like music from some old bassoon. 

Aye lives in melody and melodious verse; 
For all the music of their love livt-s on ; 

The winds, the flowers, the star* do still rehearse 
Their fadeless beauty; for their love was dawn, 

Was day, was starry night. Arcadian wold; 

For Stella still means love; can love grow old? 

READING SONNETS. 
I. 
I read the sonnets rare of many bards 

Last eve; of Keats, on Chapman's Homer fine; 

Of Milton's blindness and his thoughts divine: 
Opening each book like pack of fairy cards, 
With expectations of delight; in yards 

Of myriad flowers wandering, as the Nine 
Had drowsed in sweets, like love-led Abelards. 
Of Hartley's birth in sonnet's placid way, 

By poet-father, who was powerless 
To see this babe would live to sing a lay 

Now celebrated for its loveliness ; 
And all the charms these poet-hands have wrought, 
Touched into lasting; loveliness of thought! 



SONNETS 75 



So, I may revel 'mong my sonnet-books, 
And be fastidious as I please; may choose 
The lines of grandeur, may reject, refuse, 

Go ar^ course I will, like snow-made brooks, 

Or straying lambkins with their empty looks, 
Or rambling schoolgirl thro' the evening dews, 
Or sport with Amaryllis, Virgil's muse. 

Since beauty's often hid in little nooks. 

And so with sonnets; they are viands rare, 
A little grotto filled with sweets; a cave 

Of silver sparkles, facets fashioned fair, 
A honeycomb of beauties, tinged wave, 

A dream of Faery. Such to me the sonnet, 

A carcanet with jewels strung upon it! 



EARTH IS NEVER OLD. 



The glorious earth to me is never old, 
'T >s always just as beautiful to me, 
With stream and runnel, the imperial sea, 

The morning sun a great round disk of gold, 

The mountains hoar, and in their grandeur bold, 
The great grand skies that overeanopy 
Dear evening fields, the undulating lea, 

The meadow, brook, the hill, the wooded wold. 

Both day and night, and winter too. and eve, 
When moon and stars are looking palely down, 

When wintry winds thro' old cathedrals giieve, 
And canrlle lights are sparkling in the town, 

At any time; for earth is never gray, 

Is never old, tho* numbering many a day. 



At morn I wander through the silvery field, 
I pluck the dewy flower beside the way, 
The birds around me pipe their cadent lay; 

The same old song for centuries lias pealed ; 

And yet no poet's lip can e'er be sealed 
To all earth's beauty! Flower and leaf display 
Their oft-repeated loveliness; yet they 

Still win with some new beauty just revealed. 

Since e'en the grass or roadway's lowly weed, 
The humblest thing that by the stile may grow, 

But has a right to share a little meed 

Of praise; since not the lowliest flower may blow 

But has some hint suggestive of the tomb 

Thro' which we go to Life beyond the Gloom! 



76 SOXXETS 



No bard will e'er upbraid you for your years, 
That you repeat the lily and the rose, 
That June is June, and will be to the close, 

That May is May, and April smiles in tears, 

That Fall is Fall with all his yellow ears. 

That March is March with clatter, -tonus and blows, 
That Autumn has his old-time barley rows. 

And every former beauty reappears. 

For repetition is your beauty, Earth ! 
With rapt anticipation we may seek 

The flower of May, the rose of June, their birth 
Is still assured.* We climb some towering peak, 

And down the Southway nitid Spring we see 

< louring this way with pomp and heraldry ! 



\n'l wore it otherwise how strange "t would seem! 

.)n i |, ini the beauty of the rose untold, 

I'lie pink and pansy, and the marigold, 
I he lilies that with little lights do beam, 
The world of Mowers in evanescent gleam; — 

How much more beauty that their tale is told! 

Repeated ; for we welcome them as old, 
As some returning friend who crossed the Stream. 
And are they not more lovely that we know 

Their beauty ere they come? For beauty's more 
When coupled with our love. So, starry blue, 

Still smile as was your wont; tell o'er and o'er, 
O Earth ! your grand old tale; for such your worth 
You cannot cloy by Spring's repeated birth! 



THE MUSICAL SONNETS. 

I love the sonnet's grand majestic sweep, 
I love its glory and its grandeur rare, 
The poet's chiseled beauties builded there, 

Unravished loveliness enthralled in sleep, 

Where all things rarely beautiful may keep 
A quiet sweetness, like some Grecian fair 
In old Carrara marble, with the air 

That consecrates the spot where poets weep! 

The music-sonnets lack sonorous swell 
Of organ numbers from some Milton hand, 
The solemn dignity of Christ's farewell. 
The glory of the mountains of the land. 

The booming of the everlasting sea, 

And grand old Wordsworth's bowed sublimity ! 



SONNETS 77 



WHAT IS BEAUTY? 



'Tis spring, when flowers have deekt the laughing wold, 
*Tis summer, when 'tis dreaming into fall, 
'Tis autumn, when the corn is grand and tall, 

And yellow pumpkins look like balls of gold, 

And nature is perfection to behold, 
And God's great sun is shining over all, 
As this grand earth were his great banquet hall, 

With feast that kings knew not in days of old. 

So also's beauty in the laughing child, 
The bride who 's won by Cupid's golden love, 

The gray old mother years have made so mild; 
The stars, the moon, the great blue skies above; 

And beauty *s in the mind we cannot see, 

In tempests, calms, and Christ at Galilee. 



TO LOVE. 

To love is glory, grandeur and renown, 
To have this soul en wrapt in human clay, 
To have these eyes that tell the night from day, 

Whether our face be olive, black or brown ; 

'Tis God that smiles upon us in the town, 
The city, hamlet, hovel by the way; 
So we are kings when He becomes our stay, 

Whether the rich man or the poor man frown. 

So, simply being is a wondrous thing, 
To love, exist, is something half divine; 

No drowsy summer or empurpled spring, 
Is half the wonder to the spirit fine. 

That sees the great eternal mind of man, 

And comprehends the vastness of the plan. 



WHAT IS LOVE? 

'T is something nameless; something we must know 

By loving; even then we do not feel 
Its true reality; quietly it may steal 
Across our being; not like sudden blow, 
But half unconscious as a stream might go 

Through quiet meadows; 'tis incisive; weal 

And woe are hindrance never; 't will appeal 
To all, in palace, hut or bungalow. 
So, maiden, you may love but cannot solve; 

So, happy youth, your art is just as vain, 
Like satellites with love you may revolve; 

And yet this love your love can ne'er explain ; 
You love him, and the happy tale is told, 
And he loves you; if love, 't will ne'er grow old. 



78 SONNETS \ 

SONNETS ON SPRING. 



The robin redbreast tells me spring is here ; 

The Meeting snows have left the hillsides bare, 

So lean see that spring is everywhere; 
And so proclaims the lusty chanticleer, 
The full-voiced brooks that cross the crinkled mere, 

And happy children by their faces fair; 

For everything's a country, springtide air, 
With Southern Zephyrus to glad the year. 
So, Spring! all hail thou poet's beauteous child, 

All hail with beauty and thy fragrance new ; 
And though you come as thousand times before, 
You find the same old welcome to our shore. 



Whence cometh all this odor rich and rare? 

This hindered freshness on the whispering gale? 

Fr«>m nook and haunt and flowerless intervale? 
With nature trickt in green and debonair! 
The heifer sniff-; the circumambient air; 

While gentler breezes, with a sobbing wail, 

Invite the higher tastes of man. Unveil 
My maid of spring, and touch her golden hair! 
The immemorial years have made you, Spring! 

We know you by the airy freshness round, 
By robin redbreast with empurpled wing, 

By sturdy wildflowers peeping from the ground, 
And brook and bird and tenderly clinging vine, 
With intimations of a hand divine. 



Hark! every vestige of the snow has fled, 
And vernal breezes pipe adown the way; 
For spring has come with bird and sylvan lay, 

With vocal voices; while with tints o'erhead, 

The skies o'ercanopy with glow of red, 

Both field and fell ; for spring is here coday, 
The spring of April not of verdant May, 

And with the beauty as a bride that 's wed. 

But, Spring, we knew you would return ; since years 
From Southways you have come with jov and song, 

With nature's smile and April's sparkling tears, 
While in thy train a merry Paphian throng 

Is crowned with flowers and vines and new delights, 

With little emerald kings and rural knights. 



SONNETS 79 



With harp and timbrel and the stringed lyre, 
With rare old melodies to me divine, 
As some sweet singer on his native Rhine, 

Or myriad birdnotes in a rebel choir, 

Rebelling 'gainst old Winter's cold attire 
Of sparkling white; so cometh spring with nine 
Fair muses, Bacchus leading with red wine 

Across new fields in dainty love's desire. 

So, Winter, haste thee, haste thee on thy way, 
For spring is coining like a decorous bride, 

With tepid gales and balms and vocal lay, 
With heavenly kinship, lucent, sanctified, 

With no distinction for the high or lowly, 

But given with the love that bards call holy. 



O harbinger of fflory and delight! 

O decked Princess, born upon this day ! 

O crowning beauty all along the way! 
New drest with beauty of the starry night, 
And with the beauty of a mountain height, 

Where Spring and Winter struggling in delay, 

Have waged unequal battle, till away 
The vanquished Winter hurries in his plight! 
All hail, all hail, we greet you with our song, 

We greet you as a newborn harbinger 
Of daft delights, as all your beauties throng 

Our walks, the racy scents of juniper, 
And newest flowers, and herald birds on wing, 
To tell thy advent 'gan, O beauteous Spring! 



Unhappy Spring! thy fields are white with snow, 
And Boreal blasts are stabbing right and left, 
And e'en the hidden wildflower in the cleft, 

And pussy-willows swaying to and fro, 

And Eden houseplants in some bungalow, 
Are all a-tremble, for is spring bereft 
Of all her beauty sweet and rare and deft; 

Since Winter blows his blasts of long ago. 

But see! The great round sun has topt the hill, 
And Southern breezes from a milder clime, 

Have put a music in the snowy rill, 

And made of winter such a trental rhyme, 

He goes a-scampering on his aqueous ways, 

While robin-Spring 'gan pipes Alcmauian lays! 



SONNETS 



With all the grace of beauty, glistering Spring, 
Thou 'gan hast come from climes of Paradise, 
And in habiliments so ruffed and nice, 

With spicj' odors borne on fairy wing, 

That, like a tendril, love dust round thee cling, 
l'ho' -;i ' in •• \' s the lingering shreds of ice, 
In treachery bold, the tepid gales entice, 

Now led by Zephyr airily curveting. 

But, lo! dost come arrayed in loveliness, 
And wafted by a thousand melting gales, 

With rosy boys and maids in love's distress, 
Who wing adown old Winter's intervales, 

Till not a vestige of the ice remains, 

And thou art queen of plagal caves and plains. 



vm. 

Now prankt in beauty and in garlands rare, 
A holiday-like loveliness indeed, 
With Psyche and fair Venus in the lead, 

And rosy gods in many a winding pair, 

With balmy gales o'eiiading all the air, 
Comes Spring! A thousand welcomes and our meed, 
And Fauns pipe canticles on alcyon reed, 

That Spring has come, and bloometh everywhere! 

But so it is. We knew you would return, 
As sure as March or May or regal June, 

And with the cadence of the Scottish hern, 
And rare old viols touched to perfect tune; 

For such has been and ever yet will be; 

So, welcome Spring, with voweled songs to thee! 



IX. 

Has summer such a loveliness? or fall? 

Or autumn with his hoary fields of grain? 

Or winter with his whiteness on the plain? 
As Spring with vinelets for a coronal? 
With starting flower beside some crannied wall? 

Or venturing vine in many a winding chain? 

With such an odor that the heart would fain 
Have spring forever, ever unto all ; 
For Spring, dear Spring, thou art like Beauty's self, 

Thy horn of Plenty s rounded to the brim, 
You dance across the heart like fairy elf; 

And while my eyes with dewy love are dim, 
1 sini r : Thou art the queen-child <>f the year! 
"T is poet's wish that thou werl always here! 



SONNETS 81 



With naked hills, and meadows sere and bare; 

With desolation on the field and fell ; 

The waiting ant within her meagre cell, 
Comes pageant Spring, with such a balmy air, 
And such a melting freshness everywhere, 

The heart is gladdened by a magic spell, 

And by the beauty as a Christabel 
Had stept from heaven this loveliness to share! 
But White knew your gladdened time was near, 

And days agone he beat a cold retreat, 
And birds sang out: The nectared Spring is here, 

And in a vocal unison so sweet, 
So deft, you drove your chariot-team more fast, 
Till came the chorus : Spring is here at last! 



l' envoy. 



XI. 

O dainty Spring! O Sonnet just as rare! 

Forgive the bard that joined you heart and hand; 

Sith, loving both, where Northern skies expand, 
He could but join you in your beaut}' there! 
So. through the field and every floweret's lair, 

In sparkling nook or grotto quaint and grand, 

He led you, till a merry minstrel band 
Played melic pipes, and sang divinest air. 
So, may you, Spring, and Sonnet just as chary, 

Go on together, shining like a star! 
Beauty and beauty coming here to marry, 

Beauty and beauty in a bridal car! 
Ami onward so, till summer's odors drown you, 
And onward so, till summer's roses crown you! 




IBizeellaneous TPozmz. 



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS S3 

AL SIRAT. 



Was ever a bridge as dainty as this? 
As A. I Sirat, the Bridge of Bliss? 
No gauzy web of a spider so fine, 
Spun to Heaven in a silver line, 
Could be as nice as the bridge I write! 
Over the chasm it swayed by night, 
Over the gulf when the moon was bright, 
Dainty and delicate as e'er was dreamed, 
This rare old bridge to Islam seemed! 
So. would you cross to Paradise, 
Cross this bridge and cross in a trice, 
You needs must be a perfect soul, 
For only such can reach the goal. 



This was the way to Heaven for all 
Who 'd wear the starry coronal ; 
So, do you wonder came they far? 
Came from Thebes and Zanzibar? 
From China and the Orient? 
From ancient Ind and ancient Ghent? 
Islam, Greek and Cornish prince; 
Never a crowd was greater since! 
Some. in rags and some in robes; 
Some with burthens like Atlas globes; 
But all had come to A I Sirat; 
Come as beggars, though men at that; 
A|! for reason that here alone 
Heaven's pure light in beauty shone. 

in. 
And yet they came, the high and low, 
Over this wonderful bridge to go; 
Since over hell-fire's yawning abyss 
It led to heaven from a world like this; 
They came in chariots silver bright, 
They rode on steeds bedizened white; 
But who could blame them ? Wasn't it here 
That far way heaven seemed more near? 



But ah ! I fear me, Al Sirat 

Is not the Paradise whereat 

Fame or greatnf ss can win its way, 

For virtue alone without display. 

Can cross the bridge of Al Sirat; 

And yet how proudly the noblemen sat 

In gaudy carriages, their ladies as fair 

As earth Madonnas, debonair ! 



S4 MISCELLANEOUS' POEMS 



It seemed a pity to leave their gold, 
Earl and count and baron old; 
But over the bridge of Al Sirat 
None could pass tor dross like that \ 
And yet they came, both lady and maid, 
King and Mikado in gold arrayed, 
Captain and colonel and brigadier, 
Emperor and Empress and English peer, 
And came the widow who gave the mite, 
She crossed the bridge like a ray of light ! 

VI. 

Earls and counts came two by two, 

A maiden was there with broidered shoe, 

A lawyer and judge were hand in hand. 

Some in carriages great and grand; 

The earls and counts fell one by one 

The spider- bridge was so finely spun, 

And the pretty maid with the broidered shoe 

Fell with the rest at the rendezvous, 

Till out of the crowd that came to pass 

Old Al Sirat, not one, alas! 

But sank in the yawning depths below 

Who came in silks and earthly show ! 

So, who would cross old Al Sirat, 

Be clothed in virtue and all that, 

Since neither gold nor earthly ties 

Can carry you where this heaven lies! 

VII. 

Lords and ladies from old Cathay, 
Counts and nobles from far away, 

From Ind and Afric came, 

And men of honor and fame, 
From Italy or Ararat, 
They came to cross old Al Sirat; 
And so they came, they came by threes. 
Came o'er rivers, came o'er seas. 
From hut and hovel in regal mien, 
In coarse surtout and gaberdine, 
This will-o-the- wisp-like bridge to try! 
And who could blame them*? O not I ! 

For heaven is ope to all, 

Whether in hut or hall ; 
If you but knock God will reply. 

VIII. 

So, of every kith and kin, 

Came the human cavalcade, 

Some in gaudy masquerade, 
Thinking high heaven they could win 

Bv hiding a sinner's form 



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 85 



In purple and linen tine; 

But, all! the soul 's divine, 
And 's tried by many a Sturm! 
So, all the silver rare, 

And all the yellow gold, 
Cannot get you there, — 

Heaven 's not bought or sold. 



IX. 



And yet they came there two by two, 
Came by fours and threes and fives, 
Like honey bees around their hives 
They swarmed, each asking: "Who, who 

Is good enough to pass?" 

"T was like a film of glass, 

A spider's silver thread, 

A ray of light ahead, 

A rainbow tint afar, 

The silver of a star, 

A ray from out the sun, 

So dainty it was spun. 



If the heart be pure, 

Heaven this way is sure ! 
So, come in gold and gilded hat, 
And cross tins gauzy Al Sirat; 

Come in proud array, 

And come, come today, 
*T is the holy heart we seek. 
Be it Norse or be it Greek, 
For here 's the waj 7 to Al Sirat, 
To man or maid from old Korat. 
To men of Siam or Cathay, 
To men o'er seas and far away; 
So, do you wonder many came 
Who owned no right to Islam's name*: 

Since here was pointed out, 

O'er Al Sirat, the route 
That led to heaven. Who would say: 
"Not Al Sirat, come other way !" 



Though come ye from the clime of Nod, 
And from the fair Etruscan lands, 
With heavenly eye and clasped hands, 
Ye cannot climb to heaven and Cod! 
But when the Christ you win, 

A million Al Sirats in a trice, 
Will lead you out of sin, 
Into the good God*s Paradise! 



86 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



But come they on to Al Sirat, 

And wherefore? 'T is divine! 

The Danube or the Rhine, 

The Volga red of wine, 
Have their beauty, but ah 's, not that! 
And yet like a bridge of glass 

It spans o'er hell's abyss, 

I would not tell you this, 
Nor give you hope', alas ! 
If the bridge were not a fact, 

No matter what your sect, 

No matter how you're deckt, 
No matter if gold be lacked ; 

'T is not the eyne, 

The face divine, 
'T is purity of heart! 
A beggar from London mart, 

A maid from Persia lands, 

And old Sahara's sands, 
Can cross with holy heart. 



Come with song and dance and glee, 
Come old knights of Heraldry, 
Come with music and poet's rhyme, 
Come, come from even: clime; 
For, list the tale, at Al Sirat, 
Dainty as flowers in a Persia mat, 

The starry heaven is free 

To sensate purity ! 



And yet how dainty I may not tell; 
You 've seen the rainbow o'er the fell, 
The spider's web in sparkling dew, 
Light from Aurora peeping through 
Tin- mists of morning, gossamer-like, 
Rays of fireflies near a dyke, 

Silver threads as tine 

As a molten line 
Spun by fairies in the fen, 
Faint to microscopic ken ; 
And vet the bridge of Al Sirat 

Was finer far than these, 

Than shells on ocean lees; 
And yet the world seemed stopping at 

This webby suspension bridge, 

Faint as a chrysalis midge. 
And yet far large enough, I trow, 



JIISCELLAXEO US POEMS 



For every perfect soul to go 
Straight to heaven and God! 
Sweet as golden rod, 
Rare as censers old, 
Triekt in yellow gold, 
The odor of the rose, 
The perfume, I .suppose, 
Of sweetest human souls; 
The white steed caracoles, 
And yet is heaven as near 
As rainbow doth appear. 



The grand procession, like a cavalcade, 
"Wound through valley and everglade, 
Over hill and mountain height; 
Prince and beggar and bearded knight, 
Circled round the wet morass, 
On their way to the Bridge of Glass! 

Over rivers and streams, 

Foot and horse and teams, 
Wound they up and wound they down, 

Wound they round and over, 

Through the grass and clover, 
Red and yellow and tawny brown. 



So. on they came to Al Sirat, 

Jewish priests and scribes as well, 
Men of Niger and the Nile, 

With tambourines and tinkling bell, 
On lumbering elephants at that, 
And ladies pranked in latest style, 
From the Congo of the South, 
Down the Indus to its mouth, 
Down the Ganges far away, 

E'en from China came 

Notables of fame. 



lie that preaches only heaven 

Thro' Moorish mosque is found, 
Skippeth six in every seven, — 
Man's mind hath no bound! 
At the bridge of "lass, 
Where so few could pass, 
A man is but a man 
From Ind or Yucatan ! 



In the rain and sunny weathers, 
Some in ribbons, shawls and feathers. 



88 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



Tricked in gold and broidered hat, 

Hurry on to Al Shut : 
May their souls of alabaster 
Cross the bridge to heavenly master, 

Riding; over Al Sirat! 



THE BATTLE. 



"Charge ! every soldier is a hero ; 
(barge, charge, charge!" 

And, veterans, every in in was silent; 
But each with mooned targe, 
'Ihere bravely met the charge; 

And bucklers clashed and rang, 

And targes, with a clang, 
Turned halberd, javelin, mace; 
But O the deathly face! 
And O the cruel blow! 
But war would have it so 
For honor, bravery, fame! 
And unto one a name 
That time shall garland, years 
Shall consecrate, though tears 
Were shed, and hearts were broken, 
Because that word was spoken, 
"Charge, charge, charge !" 



Light up the gas, touch up the tire, 

The battle 's but a story ; 
Brush off the tear, forget the blood, 

But give them all the glory! 
The dinted targe, the broken axe, 

Sweet widow, these are thine! 
Brush oft the tear, thy babes will man 

The battle-broken line! 
Th*\v fought and died; go plant a flower, 

And let the old Flag wave; 
Thou hast the glory of their arms, 

Their fame is but the grave ! 
For they were men, the rank and file, — 

With battle-axe and targe 
They made the glory of the man 

That said: "Charge, charge!" 



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 89 

I HEAR THE TRUMPETS. 



Hark! I hear the trumpets braying, 
Hark! I hear the music playing, 
Trumpets braying, music playing, 
Till ray weary heart is tired! 

Curse the battle with its rattle, 
And the horrid guns they tired! 

Babies on my knee may prattle, 

But their daddy's dead in battle, 
Let that please them if it can ! 

Better dead a country's hero, 
Than a simple soldier man ! 

II. 
Shot and shell are flying faster, 
Faster, faster with disaster, 

Till my bead is whirling round! 
What is battle but a rattle, 

With its dead upon the ground? 
Doughty soldier, you 're a hero, 

For you shot their daddy down! 
And you 're human, but a Nero, 

Tear old Glory, tear her down ! 
Tear her down, for she is waving, 

This old Flag of Valle}' Forge! 
Shot have cut her stars and bars, sir, 

Quick! apply the battle scourge! 

in. 

Babies, babies, stop your crying. 

War and battle there must be! 
Glory, glory to the dying, 

Since they die, my babes, for thee! 
Let my teardrops fall and glisten, 

Let my bosom he^ve in vain, 
What "s a wife, my darling babies, 

When 'tis glorious to be slain? 
What 's a mother when a father 

Dares to face a country's foe? 
Battle, battle, with your rattle, 

Lay the dastard rebel low ! 
On to victorj', daddy, daddy, 

Whip them like the dogs they are, 
Plant old Glory on the ramparts, 

Honor every stripe and star! 

A SONG. 
You ask me for a tender song, 

Some sweet and simple rune; 
How can a poet sing a song 

Unless his heart 's in tune? 



90 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



I touch the chords, but in the soul 

Responsive notes are dumb; 
r am, as *t were, some prison bird 

That straint has overcome. 

My muse has flown to Eden skies. 

Where fairer beings throng, 
And with her took my music rare, 

And all my magic song. 

But yet the oldtime love has come 

That charmed me long ago; 
Yet vainly, vainly o'er the strings 

My aimless fingers go. 

THE WILD WAVES. 

What are the wild waves saying, love? 

What are the wild waves t-aving? 
They say thy lover's a craven false, 

That there 's need for crying and praying. 

I saw you come when the morning was clear, 
You stood by the casement alone, 

A diamond was bright in your eye, love, 
The diamond teardrop shone. 

I saw you when the moonbeam came 
And gilded the steeple with gold; 

Your form was bent like the lily, love, 
A lil3 r white in the cold ! 

And the wildered winds were sighing, love, 
Thro' the trees where you used to roam, 

When he talked so gay of a coming time, 
When you should adorn his home. 

I saw you when even had deckt the lea, 
And the moon shone over the whole; 

You seemed like an angel unto me, 
With a rare and beautiful soul. 

The stars shone down in a silver spray, 

And bathed your form in a mist; 
I envied the starlight in the sky. 

For your beautiful brow it kist. 

Your only crime was poverty, dear, 

Your only sin was love, 
Y'ou were to him like a thousand birds, 

A laverock or dove ! 

He fled the cottage wreathed in vines, 

The tears were wet in your eye; 
And all the pitying face that shone, 

\V r as the great round moon on high ! 



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 91 



MY SHIP IS SAILING. 



My ship is sailing; snowy white 
Her bellied sails are flashing bright, 
And not a star across the night 
Has half tbe glory to my sight. 

Sith in this ship ray lady sleeps. 
And as she sails the dewy deeps 
I gather roses in white heaps, 
I pile them high against the steeps. 

And why-? Because I love her true, 
No diamond star across the blue 
Seems half so bright; and so would you 
Pile up the roses in tbe dew. 

If I were you and you were I. 
Sith not tbe sky's cerulean dye 
Is half as pure; when roses lie 
In dew she's fairer far or nigh. 

And so this lady ship to me 

Is Paradise. Breast tbe blue sea, 

snow} T ship! In every tree 

The birds pour out their minstrelsy! 

MARY'S DEATH. 

They laid her in the grave, and I, 
Forget the tears, I know not why ; 
But Mary was so good ; to me 
Sbe seemed the soul of purity. 

1 know her name was homely, yet 
She had a fascination. Let 

Her virtue and her loveliness 
Go, would I love her any less'? 

Nay! something drew me; I can 't know, 
Nor any, why I loved her so; 
But when they laid her, ah ! so kind, 
Within her grave she seemed refined. 

Her loveliness grew lovelier, 
And as I stood, I thougbt of her 
As e'en more beautiful ; to me. 
At least, she had divinity ! 

But teardrops could not save, so I 
Slow turned me back; a sob, a sigh, 
A parting look, and like a knell 
I bade her then a last farewell ! 



92 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



THE SCENT OF ROSES. 

The scent of roses,— ah ! to me 
*Tis something sad ; for o'er the sea 
They buried her, and roses white 
Were on her bre:ist, and then — a night! 

Beside her grave a white rose grew 
In beauty; sparkling in the dew 
It seemed suggestive of her tomb ; 
I watched it in the gathering gloom. 

Her pale white face came back, a rose, 
With spotless ribbon ti«d in bows, 
Had been an emblem of her death, 
She called my name with her last breath ! 

I could not save her, and to me 

A sadness came; her charity, 

Her love, her death, and all my woes, 

Came back with odor of the rose ! 

So, what was lovely, made me sad, 
I gave ni}r love, 't was all I had; 
But death had rivalled me, and thus 
Even in love death comes to us ! 



THE BUTTERCUP. 

Who are you, little buttercup? 

How did you think to grow? 
What made you turn your gold disk up? 

What made it happen so? 

Who told you when you must appear? 

I 'm sure it seems to me 
So very funny ; yet I fear 

There 's more than I can see. 

Do you know God? does God know you? 

Why wast your gold-bell green? 
Who told you not to grow as blue 

As pansies I have seen? 

I 'm sure you seem a perfect thing; 

But what 1 can 't make out 
Is how you know, spring after spring, 

Just what you are about. 

What made you yellow? Why not white? 

Dare tell me this and I 
Will solve the glory of the night, 

The God that rules the skv ! 



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 93 



THE DAISY. 



Well, Miss Daisy, tell me this : 
Why dost bee dare steal a kiss 
From your lip? Within the mead 
How 's he know you 're not a weed? 

You're no taller than the grass, 
And less sweet than sassafras ; 
So, who tells the bees your blow 
Has some honey? Do you know? 

Y^ou 've a slender stem of green, 
Only bees thy nectarine 
Have found, little flower in white, 
Tinged with red, O meadow wight! 

With a dash of yellow. Still, 
Tho' a pest, I drink my fill 
Of thy loveliness, for she 
Helen, living, cherished thee! 

So, you re sweeter than the rose; 
Why? She loved you ! Beauty goes 
Hand in hand with love. To me 
Thou art clothed in chastity ! 

DEAD LEAVES, DEATH. 

Love laughs at death ! Dead leaves, dead leaves, 
We find them blown about the tomb, 
By marble vaults ; the charnel room, 

The symbols of a heart that grieves. 

The wind may whirl them, but to me, 
Dead leaves are precious, for she gave 
Her love to me beside a grave 

Where the3 r were blown, 'neath cypress tree! 

So, Autumn, whirl the last dead leaf, 
I see them huddled in the cold, 
They 're rotting on the mead, the wold 

Is hidden 'neath these signs of grief. 

But love and I, dead leaves, and I, 
Go rambling thro' you. In your nooks 
And dells we find you, by the brooks, 

In funeral heaps we see you lie. 

And yet a symbol you may be 

Of death ; but aigrets I will make 

Of you, dead leaflets, for her sake, 
Since you and love are one to me ! 



94 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



THE FIR. 

Time, s;ive me trophies from the past, 

A mossy Hellas or a star; 
E'en Theban splendors could not last, 

And time is dimming Trafalgar. 

But, Scotch fir tree, four hundred years 
May find you hearty, hale and green ; 

Yet Athens fell, a Troy in tears 
Is but a memory now, I ween. 

But love has lived, a cycle more 
And love will be as fresh and new ; 

He liveth on forevermore. 

Still spangled with perennial dew. 

So, live fir tree, and live for aye 
Old Eden's love ; the Garden's gone, 

And Tempe, Argos since that day, 
But love still puts his garlands on. 

So, fir and time, you may destroy 
The silver Peneus sparkling fair, 

And Helen in beloved Troy, 
But love will bloom forever there! 



THE HAZEL. 

On lyre of tortoise play no battle song, 

O son of Maia, but to me 
Pipe out new ditties sweet and overlong, 

For peace has crowned on scented lea. 

The god of harmony, Apollo rare, 
Descended from the curled clouds, 

And Maia's shell, with love's enravished air, 
Tameu warring hearts of martial crowds. 

But with thy pendent antler's yellow head, 
O hazel peace! I crown thee now, 

Since Captain Hymen our love's battle led, 
Until we wore love's olive bough. 

In misty fable thou art shrined for aye, 
But warring hearts have found thy peace; 

Old war may fight his battles, yea and nay, 
Yet love and I will sail to Greece. 



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



95 



We'll sail away, we '11 sail away, a crown 
Of hazel leaves to grace her, queen ; 

Love (tares not where we go, or up or down, 
To Greece or Koine or Aberdeen. 



FINIS. 




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